RAISE: CHIRRP: Advancing actionable understanding of chronic heat risks and response potentials in the urbanized subtropics

By combining expertise from climate science and adaptation research, this study will advance the foundational understanding of chronic heat hazards, how these hazards translate into different types of risks depending on where people live and work, and how different adaptive responses reduce risks and inform legal, regulatory and policy approaches. Prolonged periods of extreme heat are becoming increasingly common worldwide, especially affecting regions near the tropics and subtropics such as Florida.

These areas experience chronic heat hazards, where extreme temperatures and high humidity can persist for months on end. Researchers have overlooked chronic humid heat hazards assuming people stay safe in climate-controlled spaces. However, prolonged exposure to hot, humid conditions poses significant health risks.

By developing new methods to measure and manage chronic heat hazards, research findings will inform planning and implementation of responses. Results will help inform existing heat-relevant programs led by project partners and a range of government agencies. Transdisciplinary partnerships and immersive training experiences will help develop a workforce prepared to help mitigate climate change challenges in Florida and in other geographical areas currently or soon-to-be experiencing chronic heat regimes.

Extreme heat is intensifying across the globe, and wide swaths of the world do not experience heat as traditionally defined heat waves. Tropical and subtropical regions experience dangerous levels of heat for months on end, and humidity drives up risks. This project will develop decision-relevant metrics of chronic humid heat hazards and their uncertainties at present and under future climate and land-use scenarios.

Researchers will calculate chronic humid heat exposures for heat-burdened households and workers, which emerge from cumulative factors and roles. The team will evaluate strategies and measures to reduce chronic humid heat exposures for people at risk. Through an Earth-system-science approach, this project will develop a framework to measure, model and manage chronic humid heat hazards and risks.

Building on long-standing collaborative partnerships, the work will inform established practices and potential policies and programs. By training students in transdisciplinary partnerships and research, this work will build research and workforce capacity in Florida and other similar at-risk geographies.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.