Each year, heat kills more Americans than any other climate-fueled hazard, including hurricanes, floods, and wildfires – yet most communities are underprepared.
To help change that, the University of Arizona’s Heat Resilience Initiative, housed within the Arizona Institute for Resilience, is launching a pilot cohort for a new project, Heat Roadmaps for Arizona Communities. The Roadmaps project will help empower communities to increase their heat resilience through data-informed research and tools.
The Roadmap project will help the cities assess local heat impacts, determine capacity needs, identify available resources, and outline short- and long-term strategies to reach their goals.
Additionally, the Roadmaps project will use the Guiding Framework and the Roadmaps Workbook developed by the now-concluded U.S. National Integrated Heat Health Information System-funded Center for Heat Resilient Communities.
The 2025 - 2026 cohort:
The two communities in the pilot cohort are the City of Mesa and the City of Flagstaff, which will both receive the support of a team of U of A student researchers and heat governance experts to help them produce locally tailored heat-action blueprints.