People Of Color Exposed To More Extremely Hot Days: Yale School Study

A new study by the Yale School of the Environment researchers has found a disparity between people of colour and white communities when it comes to facing heat exposure.

Yale School of the Environment researchers have conducted this new research to find out how increasing heat in urban cities is affecting people of colour communities and low-income people as they have fewer cooling options. Most of the studies have focused on urban centres and large cities, says Yale Statement.

Shijuan Chen, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral associate at YSE commented, “In the current literature, there are a lot of studies showing that underserved communities, such as communities of color and low-income communities, are disproportionately affected by climate change. However, there’s still a large knowledge gap on how the urban heat disparity is changing; how underserved communities are affected by the change in urban heat; and how the adaptation capability of those communities is changing."

“As we looked at a 30-year time period, we were able to understand that not only are low-income communities and communities with a majority of people of color in Connecticut more exposed to urban heat islands today, that disparity is increasing over time,” said Katie Lund ’24 MEM, one of the study’s authors.

Yale Study On Heat Exposure: More Details

The study revealed that the underserved communities experienced more sweltering days, higher overall temperatures, and more increases in heat exposure over a 30-year period.

The research focused on the 10 biggest cities in Stamford, Connecticut — Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, Danbury, Norwalk, Hamden, New Britain, and Manchester.

"The study’s authors, including Chen and Karen Seto, the Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at YSE, used U.S. census data from 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020, land use parcel data, building-level property assessment data, satellite data, airborne data, and OpenStreetMap (OSM) data, in their research. They found that communities of color face greater heat exposure and fewer adaptation resources compared to predominantly white neighborhoods," reads the official statement of Yale.

Read more:

• Oxford-Led Project On Clean Hydropower Energy Gets £2 Million Funding
• Study In UK: Queen Mary University Co-Hosts Global Education Conference