Designing equitable solutions to rising temperatures and health impacts in Jackson, Mississippi.
Heat on The Rise
As you have likely noticed, it's hot and getting hotter in Jackson, Mississippi. In 2021, 47 days reached a high of 95 degrees Fahrenheit here; by 2030, this rate is expected to soar to 58 days each year. These high temperatures can cause health issues for Jackson residents who are underprepared to cope with the heat and those who are more susceptible to its effects.
According to a recent heat-mapping study, "Heat Watch", you could even experience higher temperatures in some areas of the City depending on where exactly you're located. In other words, everyone in Jackson is affected by heat, but the effect of heat is not the same for everyone.
The Good News In response to the heat mapping study, a new opportunity has come to Jackson aimed at reducing high temperatures and alleviating health stress on residents as they recreate, work, and rest. Using the the heat maps, The Jackson Greening Project is working with community members to identify and design low-cost solutions in the City's hottest areas.
This article will first overview how the heat maps were made, and then how to intepret the information for the new greening initiative.
Community Action
Back in 2020, a group of volunteers set out on a hot day in Jackson to collect temperature readings across the entire City, with the aim of better understanding which parts of Jackson tend to be hotter or cooler.
In all, the volunteers collected over 70,000 individual measurements of temperature and humidity during the morning, afternoon, and evening using sensors attached to their cars.
Using these measurements, or "heat data", analysts then created maps that show how heat is distributed across the City and throughout the day.
These maps are next being used in the Jackson Greening Project to identify areas that are in greatest need of heat mitigation solutions.
Heat Maps
Exploring the Data
This section provides a guide for how to explore the data and heat maps produced from Heat Watch Jackson, shown in the interactive map to the right.
Layers
The map has several "layers", or sets of information, that you can turn on and off. To access the layers, click the Layer List button:
The top layers show the data points collected in the morning, afternoon and evening. These trails of dots show the routes taken by volunteers, and the colors represent the temperatures captured along the drive, ranging from hot red to cool blue.
Surface Models
You will notice there are two afternoon layers - a temperature layer and a heat index layer. The heat index is a calculation that relfects a combination of temperature and humidity. Read more about heat index calculations here .
(If you are following along in a separate window, go ahead and turn off the traverse routes and all other layers except for the afternoon heat index model.)
Let's Zoom In
Using the zoom feature, we can look closer at areas that show patterns of warmer and cooler temperatures.
We can turn off and on the layer to see the underlying imagery and make some guesses as to why this difference is occuring.
Turning off the heat layer, can you think of reasons why the area towards the bottom of the map is warmer compared to the surrounding neighborhood?
Where do you see more tree cover? Where do you see more concrete and large buildings?
Search for Addresses
The top of the map has a window that allows you to search for addresses. Let's zoom in to some different areas and see how they also look at the street level using Google Maps.
Example of a hot commercial area: 4229 N State St
Google Street View of a hot commercial area
Google Street View of a hot residential area
Google Street View of a cool residential area
What about the landscape (trees, concrete buildings, riverside walkway) do you think might be influencing the heat in these areas?
Continue your own exploration!
Find your home, place of work, or leisure areas and compare the heat throughout the day to your own experience of the area.
Interpreting the Data
Now that you've explored the heat maps, we can reflect on some key takeaways. You may have noticed the pattern between heat and features of the environment, like trees, concrete, and buildings. In fact, developed areas with high amounts of concrete and buildings were found to have higher average temperatures (up to 90°F) compared to vegetated and natural areas (87°F). In Jackson, trees and green infrastructure appear to help reduce heat.
Finding Solutions
In response to the disparities shown by the heat maps, The Jackson Greening Project will work with community members and partner organizations to design and implement solutions. These "greening" solutions may be planting trees and other vegetation, as well as building green infrastructure improvements.
