Ladd Keith- Doctor of Philosophy
- Professor (Associate) at University of Arizona
Ladd Keith
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Professor (Associate) at University of Arizona
Associate Professor of Planning
About
62
Publications
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Introduction
Ladd Keith, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning, Director of the Heat Resilience Initiative, and a faculty research associate at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona. His transdisciplinary research focuses on heat planning, policy, and governance to help increase the heat resilience of communities, regions, and nations across the world with funding from CDC, DOE, DOT, and NOAA.
Current institution
Education
January 2013 - May 2019
August 2003 - May 2005
August 1999 - May 2003
Publications
Publications (62)
Extreme heat is a growing concern for cities, with both climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect increasingly impacting public health, economies, urban infrastructure, and urban ecology. To better understand the current state of planning for extreme heat, we conducted a systematic literature review. We found that most of the research f...
Problem, Research Strategy, and Findings: Extreme heat is the deadliest climate hazard in the United States. Climate change and the urban heat island effect are increasing the number of dangerously hot days in cities worldwide and the need for communities to plan for extreme heat. Existing literature on heat planning focuses on heat island mapping...
Cities need heat governance to plan for extreme temperatures and protect those most at risk. Cities need heat governance to plan for extreme temperatures and protect those most at risk.
Heat is the number one weather-related killer in the United States. As average global temperatures continue to rise, the threats of both extreme heat events and chronic heat are projected to increase.
Heat disproportionately affects marginalized residents and those who face systematic inequities such as workplace safety, housing quality, energy af...
Heat is an increasing climate risk for cities due to climate change and the urban heat island effect. Extreme heat has inequitable impacts across social, economic, and urban environmental systems. Despite increasing awareness of heat risk, the planning and governance structures for mitigating and managing heat are less understood than those for oth...
Background: Increasing average temperatures and extreme heat events due to climate change have adverse effects on human health. Previous studies focus on the heat impacts in urban areas due to the focus on the greater population and urban heat island effect, but this tendency results in the effect of heat on rural health being overlooked. Methods:...
The new Heat Resilience Initiative within the Arizona Institute for Resilience, directed by Ladd Keith, Associate Professor of Planning at the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture and Faculty Research Associate at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, will unite and expand existing heat-related programs at the Unive...
Increasing extreme heat poses challenges to metropolitan areas, such as those areas already experiencing extreme heat in Arizona. Using the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) Framework, state and local health departments have looked to expand cooling center networks as one optio...
In the face of warming climates, urban planners are increasingly preparing and protecting urban communities from growing risks of heat exposure. There is a need for comprehensive decision support frameworks that can aid urban planners in their efforts to provide context-based solutions to heat exposure in urban environments. The framework proposed...
Over 110 representatives from grassroots, non-profit, government, private sector, labor unions, utilities, and academic organizations in Southern Arizona convened and coproduced a list of gaps and opportunities to improve community heat resilience.
Cities worldwide face growing heat risks but still mostly lack comprehensive and coordinated efforts to address heat hazards. Emerging urban heat governance systems should integrate disciplines and sectors to holistically and equitably mitigate and manage heat through goals, data, action, evaluation, and public participation across different govern...
The combination of climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect is increasing the number of dangerously hot days and the need for all communities to plan for urban heat resilience equitably. Urban heat resilience requires an integrated planning approach that coordinates strategies across community plans and uses the best available heat ris...
The combination of climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect is increasing the number of dangerously hot days and the need for all communities to plan for urban heat resilience equitably. Urban heat resilience requires an integrated planning approach that coordinates strategies across community plans and uses the best available heat ris...
The combination of climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect is increasing the number of dangerously hot days and the need for all communities to plan for urban heat resilience equitably. Urban heat resilience requires an integrated planning approach that coordinates strategies across community plans and uses the best available heat ris...
The combination of climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect is increasing the number of dangerously hot days and the need for all communities to plan for urban heat resilience equitably. Urban heat resilience requires an integrated planning approach that coordinates strategies across community plans and uses the best available heat ris...
Escalating impacts from climate change and urban heat are increasing the urgency for communities to equitably plan for heat resilience. Cities in the desert Southwest are among the hottest and fastest warming in the U.S., placing them on the front lines of heat planning. Urban heat resilience requires an integrated planning approach that coordinate...
Planners face a complex process from planning projects to final construction and evaluation in cycle planning. Planners tend to coordinate with peers in neighboring cities, advocates, politicians, other policymakers, and researchers to implement cycling plans. Documenting this decision-making process and the sources of information that guide decisi...
The extreme heat in the north and central America has resulted in severe impacts, including more than 125 heat-related deaths in Mexico since March, thousands of cases of heat stroke, and power outages. We likely do not know the full picture of heat-related deaths, since they are usually only confirmed and reported months after the event, if at all...
Cities must equitably plan for heat resilience as heat risks increase but lack integrated approaches to coordinate strategies across community plans and prioritize heat mitigation for the most vulnerable communities. We adapted the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard™ (PIRS™) methodology, originally developed for flood hazards, to heat and pi...
Extreme heat is among the deadliest climate-related hazards with social and ecological impacts. Heat risks are increasing due to climate change and characteristics of the built environment, particularly in urban areas. Many larger and well-resourced cities are making progress on heat initiatives, such as creating heat action plans and pursuing stra...
The combination of climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect is increasing the number of dangerously hot days and the need for all communities to plan for urban heat resilience equitably. Urban heat resilience requires an integrated planning approach that coordinates strategies across community plans and uses the best available heat ris...
The combination of climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect is increasing the number of dangerously hot days and the need for all communities to plan for urban heat resilience equitably. Urban heat resilience requires an integrated planning approach that coordinates strategies across community plans and uses the best available heat ris...
The combination of climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect is increasing the number of dangerously hot days and the need for all communities to plan for urban heat resilience equitably. Urban heat resilience requires an integrated planning approach that coordinates strategies across community plans and uses the best available heat ris...
Media representations of heatwaves and climate change plays an important role in how the public thinks about, perceives, prepares for and acts on risks to their health, and how decision and policy makers address the problem.
This brief was developed by the Global Heat Health Information Network and partners to provide journalists, editors and othe...
Recent studies and reports suggest an increased mortality rate of undocumented border crossers (UBCs) in Arizona is the result of heat extremes and climatic change. Conversely, others have shown that deaths have occurred in cooler environments than in previous years. We hypothesized that human locomotion plays a greater role in heat-related mortali...
Land surface temperature (LST) estimates often serve as urban heat islands maps and to infer human thermal comfort. Parallel to this, physiological heat balance calculations have been well documented to measure changes in body core temperature and measure risk of heat-related illness. However, there is a need for an improved spatially explicit meth...
Rising temperatures associated with climate change are impacting household energy use. Many of today’s industrial-technological-urban humans thermoregulate in the face of varying temperatures using extra-metabolic energy use for heating and cooling our indoor microclimates. Previously, household energy use as a function of temperature change over s...
Climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect are increasing extreme heat risk in cities across the world, and have already made extreme heat the top weather-related cause of death in the United States. Despite this, understanding of viable strategies to address extreme heat is still limited, for both decision-makers and the public. Using a...
The thermal comfort perceptions of transit users at streetcar stops are critical to their overall ridership experience and health. Extreme heat is increasing due to climate change and the urban heat island effect, exposing transit users to greater heat stress. Through a survey of streetcar users and interviews with streetcar decision-makers, we exp...
Recent studies and reports suggest an increased mortality rate of undocumented border crossers (UBCs) in Arizona is the result of heat extremes and climatic change. Conversely, others have shown that deaths have occurred in cooler environments than in previous years. We hypothesized that human locomotion plays a greater role in heat-related mortali...
The built environment, cyclist behavior, and driver interactions can influence route choice and, ultimately, cyclist safety. Recent studies use crowdsourced data, such as Strava, to document route selection; however, aggregated data may not fully explain the factors underpinning route selection. Utilizing naturalistic methods, we analyze videos of...
The combination of climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect is increasing the number of dangerously hot days and the need for all communities to plan for urban heat resilience equitably. Urban heat resilience requires an integrated planning approach that coordinates strategies across community plans and uses the best available heat ris...
The combination of climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect is increasing the number of dangerously hot days and the need for all communities to plan for urban heat resilience equitably. Urban heat resilience requires an integrated planning approach that coordinates strategies across community plans and uses the best available heat ris...
The combination of climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect is increasing the number of dangerously hot days and the need for all communities to plan for urban heat resilience equitably. Urban heat resilience requires an integrated planning approach that coordinates strategies across community plans and uses the best available heat ris...
This special issue is expected to bring together researchers who are working on topics relevant to climate-related health and prevention and adaptation for impact reduction to share their latest accomplishments and research findings. The special issue is important to inform people with a comprehensive understanding of possible issues relevant to cl...
Green stormwater infrastructure provides environmental, economic, and health benefits as a strategy for building resilience against climate change impacts. However, it may inadvertently increase vulnerability due to improper design and construction or lack of maintenance. We engaged city stakeholders and a diverse student group to investigate possi...
Extreme heat is the deadliest climate hazard in the United States. Climate change and the urban heat island effect are increasing the number of dangerously hot days in cities worldwide and the need for communities to plan for extreme heat. Existing literature on heat planning focuses on heat island mapping and modeling, whereas few studies delve in...
A central tenant in minimizing personal heat exposure is that context matters. In our article reporting on personal heat exposure in outdoor COVID-19 vaccination sites in Arizona, USA during spring 2021, we emphasized that heat mitigation strategies are highly specific to the underlying climatological and site design contexts. The Mungmunpuntipanti...
Extreme heat is an increasing climate risk due to climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect and can jeopardize points of dispensing (PODs) for COVID-19 vaccination distribution and broader public health emergency preparedness (PHEP) response operations. These PODs were often located on large parking lot sites with high heat severity and...
Heat is the deadliest weather-related hazard in the United States, posing a growing and inequitable threat to human health, infrastructure, and economic and ecological systems. Communities are getting hotter due to climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Cities across the country must prepare for unprecedented heat and address system...
About a year after a tornado left a path of destruction across northern Dallas, the city asked ULI to convene a virtual Advisory Services panel (vASP) focusing on the area around the Walnut Hill/Denton Drive Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) station on the western edge of the tornado’s path. The panel was asked to provide recommendations on how to f...
The COVID-19 pandemic amplifies health risks for many people in hot weather. To reduce
heat-related illness and loss of life authorities and communities should prepare for hot weather and heatwaves — in addition to managing COVID-19 — before extreme heat strikes.
The earth’s climate is changing. Global average temperatures have risen 1.8° F since 1901. Warming temperatures are driving other environmental changes such as melting glaciers, rising sea
levels, changes in precipitation patterns, and increased drought and wildfires.The magnitude of future changes will depend on the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG...
Stakeholder participation at the intersection of climate and health is essential to assess and plan for the human health impacts of current and projected climate-sensitive hazards. Using the Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) Coalition on Climate Change and Public Health workgroup and the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMA...
This research aims to study the thermal comfort of pedestrians in several multi-modal corridors within the City of Tucson to document ambient and radiant temperatures of different multi-modal corridor typologies and to understand the effect of heat stress on pedestrian mobility patterns. Corridors will be selected based on interviews with local urb...
At a middle school in Tucson, Arizona, students point to their feet and exclaim that they can feel the heat through their shoes when they have to walk across the black asphalt courtyard to reach their playground. They are experiencing the phenomena of extreme heat. This observable event begins a path of learning for the students that has real-world...
While urban heat island (UHI) mapping and modeling have become more sophisticated in recent years, there is still an information gap between the UHI maps and models, urban planning and design strategies to decrease heat, and the use of that information in policy decision making. Our study focuses on documenting the current use of UHI maps and model...
The Pueblo of Laguna, a federally recognized tribe, seeks to enhance its resilience to changing climate conditions and extreme weather events and their associated impacts. Through adaptation planning, the Pueblo wishes to reduce the ways that extreme heat, drought, heavy rainfall and other extreme precipitation, extreme winds, and associated events...
As a part of Miami’s efforts to be at the forefront of resilience planning, the City of Miami and the Miami Downtown Development Authority (DDA), the sponsors, asked the Urban Land Institute to conduct an Advisory Services Panel to provide strategic recommendations on design guidelines, funding opportunities, policy approaches, and an implementatio...
Climate change adaptation planning is the process of planning to adjust to new or changing environments in ways that reduce negative effects and take advantage of beneficial opportunities. Climate change adaptation strategies can be integrated into existing community plans, such as landscape or infrastructure management plans or can be stand-alone...
ULI Advisory Service panel was asked to provide strategic advice and recommendations for the City of Jacksonville and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) on the following four key objectives and goals: economic development opportunities, regulatory goals and policy, land use and market-based development, and implementation. These object...
The earth’s climate is changing. Global average temperatures have risen 1.8°F since 1901 (Wuebbles et al. 2017). Warming temperatures are driving other environmental changes such as melting glaciers, rising sea levels, changes in precipitation patterns, and increased drought and wildfires. The magnitude of future changes will depend on the amount o...
ULI members developed Ten Principles for Building Resilience through a 2017 workshop that analyzed the findings of the Institute’s ten resilience-focused Advisory Services panels, as well as other resilience-focused projects led by the Urban Resilience program and ULI district councils. The goal of the workshop was to determine the key themes of UL...
The ULI Resilience Advisory Services Panel in El Paso studied how the region’s proposed new Active Transportation System can serve as a model for resilience by taking a holistic approach to environmental planning, land use, open space, housing development strategy and civic engagement.
The City of El Paso faces challenges such as flash flooding, d...
St. Tammany Parish has spent considerable time developing a philosophy on resilience. Many grant opportunities have emerged because of multiple storm-related events that affected both the parish and the larger region. Those grant opportunities as well as other funding have provided the parish with the ability to study extensively its south central...
