Climate Change in Los Angeles County, California
How Los Angeles County is being impacted by climate change and their attempts to mitigate it
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The below temperature and land use maps were created using the above images from USGS Earth Explorer . The left image was taken July 4, 2000 by Landsat7 and the right image was taken July 3, 2020 by Landsat8. The 20-year gap between the photos allows for seeing the changes over the years that can explain how climate change is impacting Los Angeles County.
How Climate Change is Showing Up
Los Angeles County is in southern California and covers 4,084 square miles and has about 10,000 residents (LA County, 2023). Like the rest of the world, Los Angeles County is experiencing climate change which includes increased temperatures, wildfires, droughts, and floods (LA County, 2021). It is important to understand how Los Angeles is being impact by climate change, what actions help mitigate the effects of climate change, and how these actions can be implemented in Los Angeles County.
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Temperature changes from July 4, 2000 (left) to July 3, 2020 (right) in Los Angeles County. The above maps were created using the thermal bands from the images from USGS Earth Explorer on July 4, 2000 and July 3, 2020.
Many parts of the county have increased in temperature, but some less than others and other areas where cooler to begin with. By determining why some areas are significantly cooler than others, efforts can be made to decrease temperatures and mitigate climate change across the county.
Climate Resilience Rank in Los Angeles County
Now that it is seen that the temperature in Los Angeles County is increasing, it is important to determine what that means for the county. To the right is a map of climate change resilience on a scale of 0-5 (light blue to dark blue) in Los Angeles County. The higher the score, the higher the resilience. The data for this map was retrieved from the California State Geoportal .
Los Angeles County has also performed a climate vulnerability assessment to determine what is expected county wide and is expecting extreme heat, wildfires, droughts, and other issues (LA County, 2021).
LA County Water
In both July 2000 and July 2020, Los Angeles County had zero inches of rain (LA Almanac, n.d.). With climate change, Los Angeles County is anticipating more droughts and mega-droughts which is harmful to infrastructure and communities (LA County, 2021). The map to the left shows which communities are going to be most impacted by droughts, the lighter the color, the more likely that area is going to be impacted. The data for this map was retrieved from the California State Geoportal .
Mitigating Climate Change
Understanding how climate change shows up is important to determine the best methods for mitigating it, but Los Angeles has already begun making efforts to mitigate climate change.
Landsat7 Classified
The above map shows the land use on July 4, 2000 in Los Angeles County. This was done using unsupervised classification in ArcGIS Pro on an image taken by Landsat7.
Landsat8 Classified
The above map shows the land use on July 3, 2020 in Los Angeles County. This was done using unsupervised classification in ArcGIS Pro on an image taken by Landsat8. There is an increase in developed land and a decrease in green spaces from 2000.
A comparison of land use versus temperature on July 3, 2020.
By comparing the temperature to land use, it can be seen that the green spaces, and the areas around them, are not as high in temperature to begin with and do not increase in temperature significantly compared to the rest of the county. Green spaces have been shown to help protect cities as climate change worsens partly due to decreased temperature but also because green spaces help reduce emissions (Robbel, 2016). The impact green spaces has on temperature can be seen in the maps on the left.
Landsat8 Classification and Climate Resilience
Additionally, when comparing climate resiliency scores to land use, it can be seen that the scores in urban areas are lower than those in less developed areas making green spaces even more important.
There are 73,214 acres of parkland in Los Angeles County (LA County, 2023). These green spaces are incredibly important to help mitigate the effects of climate change in Los Angeles County. However, the land use map shows green spaces are concentrated in a small area. There are foundations, like Green Spaces LA , that works to build green spaces in urban areas of Los Angeles (Green Spaces LA, n.d.). Los Angeles County has also developed the Green Zones Program below (LA County Planning, n.d.).
Green Zones Program - LA County Planning
Green spaces are just part of the solution to mitigating climate change. While beneficial in reducing temperatures of the surrounding area, it would be best to reduce temperatures overall. Los Angeles has developed a climate action plan, 2045 Climate Action Plan which is an extensive document that explains how Los Angeles County plans to reduce emissions in accordance with the Paris Accords (County of Los Angeles, 2023). It can be difficult to determine how effective these actions are because Los Angeles County is not the only county contributing to climate change. While Los Angeles County is very large, the actions of this county alone will not halt climate change and there is only so much one county can do to mitigate the effects of climate change on its citizens and infrastructure. Los Angeles County and the entire country would benefit if all of the United States began taking actions to stop climate change.