Over the past few decades, the Phoenix metropolitan area has become the center stage for sustainability research related to urban heat islands, drought, and other challenges facing desert climates. Situated in the Sonoran Desert, Phoenix’s extreme climate and rapid urbanization patterns have rendered the metropolitan area a perfect testbed to investigate extreme events and evaluate various hazard mitigation strategies through real world, solutions-oriented research.

The 21st century has already brought numerous weather extremes to Phoenix, ranging from 120 degree Fahrenheit temperatures to record flooding. Recognizing that Phoenix conditions could become the new normal in other parts of the world, this region has long embraced its sandbox role. City officials and researchers are actively seeking to understand the processes for these hazards, their impacts on urban infrastructure, and how they affect the population to increase urban resilience, especially among the vulnerable and underrepresented groups (low-income, elderly, native peoples, etc.).

The study of extreme events in light of cascading negative effects as well as feedback loops within weather hazards requires interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration. We welcome contributions that address extreme heat, drought, flooding, monsoonal weather patterns, and wildfires as they impact urban infrastructure, transportation, design and planning, risk perception, the energy-food-water nexus, and livability of cities.

Presentations are particularly encouraged from researchers studying Phoenix, but we also welcome presentations from research teams studying other desert cities (e.g., Dubai, Israel, Kuwait, Sydney, Melbourne).