Nature’s Cooling Systems Project for
Heat Action Planning in Greater Phoenix
Executive Summary
In Greater Phoenix, urban heat is impacting health,
safety, and the economy and these impacts are
expected to worsen over time. The number of days
above 110˚F are projected to more than double by
2060. In May 2017, The Nature Conservancy, Maricopa
County Department of Public Health, Central Arizona
Conservation Alliance, Urban Resilience to Extremes
Sustainability Research Network, Arizona State
University’s Urban Climate Research Center, and Center
for Whole Communities launched a participatory
Heat Action Planning process in the Edison-Eastlake
Community, Mesa Care Neighborhood, and in Lindo
Park-Roesley Park Neighborhood to identify both
mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce heat
directly and improve the ability of residents to deal
with heat. Community based organizations in these
three neighborhoods later joined the project team:
Phoenix Revitalization Corporation, RAILMesa, and
Puente Movement. Beyond building a community
Heat Action Plan and completing demonstration
projects, this participatory process was designed to
develop awareness, agency, and social cohesion in

underrepresented communities. Furthermore, the
Heat Action Planning process was designed to serve
as a model for future heat resilience efforts and create
a local, contextual, and culturally appropriate vision
of a safer, healthier future. The iterative planning
and engagement method used by the project team
strengthened relationships within and between
neighborhoods, community-based organizations,
decision-makers, and the core team, and it combined
storytelling wisdom and scientific evidence to better
understand current and future challenges residents
face during extreme heat events.
As a result of three workshops within each community,
the residents brought forth ideas that they want to
see implemented to increase their thermal comfort and
safety during extreme heat days. As depicted below,
residents’ ideas intersected around similar concepts,
but specific solutions varied across neighborhoods. For
example, all neighborhoods would like to add shade
to their pedestrian corridors but preferences for the
location of shade improvements differed. Some

Strategic Themes
Advocate and Educate

Improve
Comfort/Ability
to Cope

Improve Safety

Build Capacity

Mesa Care

Lindo-Roesley

Edison-Eastlake

Using social media and
hashtags to highlight child
safety and bus route issues

Planting vegetation for empty
lots to reduce dust

Create signage for heat safety
and wayfinding could
reduce risk

HEAT ACTION PLANNING GUIDE

GREATER PHOENIX

community members
engineers & designers
local business owners
developers
Implementing
resident visions
community leaders city planners
Envisioning
academic experts community members
locally appropriate
NGOs engineers & designers
strategies & plans
city officials
community leaders
NGOs business owners
city planners & officials
academic experts
city, state, county officials
elective office-holders

Empowering local leadership

Building networks & collaborations

Evolving under city/region goals and
policy to promote well-being

neighborhoods prioritized routes to public transportation,
others prioritized routes used by children on their way
to school, and others wanted to see shaded rest stops in
key places. Four overarching strategic themes emerged
across all three neighborhoods: advocate and educate;
improve comfort/ability to cope; improve safety; build
capacity. These themes signal that there are serious
heat safety challenges in residents’ day-to-day lives and
that community, business, and decision-making sectors
need to address those challenges.
Heat Action Plan elements are designed to be
incorporated into other efforts to alleviate heat, to create
climate-resilient cities, and to provide public health and
safety. Heat Action Plan implementation partners are
identified drawing from the Greater Phoenix region,
and recommendations are given for supporting the
transformation to a cooler city.
To scale this approach, project team members
recommend a) continued engagement with and
investments into these neighborhoods to implement
change signaled by residents as vital, b) repeating the
heat action planning process with community leaders in
other neighborhoods, and c) working with cities, urban
planners, and other stakeholders to institutionalize this
process, supporting policies, and the use of proposed
metrics for creating cooler communities.

HEAT ACTION PLANNING GUIDE

Increasing level of organization

Heat action in neighborhoods should be supported through strengthened
relationships between various levels of organization and governance.

GREATER PHOENIX

Comments on Heat Action Planning
“I ride the bus and sometimes I go to the bus stop and
it is really hot. Also, my apartment, it’s also really hot
in there….I have to go to bus stations and there is no
shade structure. There is nothing. There are no trees
along the way…I wish that there were more trees where
I live…because there is nothing.”
- Edison-Eastlake Resident
“With conversations with neighbors in South Phoenix,
what is very interesting to me is that they say, “Oh it’s
hot, that’s normal.” And I think that’s the interesting
part of the conversation. It is hot, but it’s not normal.
There is something that we can do.”
- Community Organizing Partner
“What makes this project unique is that we’re focused
on improving quality of life, we’re not just recording
facts about heat and shade, etc., you need people’s
experiences to drive the process of change”
- Core Team Partner