Student Research - Mission Earth

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As climate change continues to accelerate, a specific phenomenon continues to intensify along with it. The urban heat island effect (UHI) is a phenomenon where urban areas are significantly hotter than nearby rural areas. This is largely caused by city infrastructure that traps heat; however, this capture of heat elevates energy prices and burdens. However, these high prices are impacting groups differently. Redlining is a discriminatory housing practice that began in the 1930s and separated black, immigrant, and low-income communities and denied them opportunities for mortgages and investment. Through our research, we wanted to identify if these very redlined and low-income regions were at the highest risk of UHI and if they had a high energy cost burden. To test our hypothesis, we specifically focused on New York City due to its wide range of socioeconomic regions and prominent history with redlining. The primary software used for analysis was ARCGIS, and the data was analyzed at a census tract level. Socioeconomic data in the form of median household income (MHI) was obtained through the NYC census tract from 2020, and land surface temperature (LST) data from June to August of 2023 was obtained from Google Earth Engine. Energy cost burden was also calculated by dividing total annual household costs on energy by the MHI. The combination of the datasets and maps illustrated the intersectionality of climate vulnerability, energy burden, and socioeconomic disparities. Communities that are low-income (high energy cost burden), living in high LST (heat islands), and facing systemic underinvestment are the most vulnerable to climate-related health impacts and financial strain. Additionally, statistical analysis was conducted to find a Pearson correlation value of -0.751. This statistically confirms that as median household income increases, energy cost burden decreases significantly. Using this information, future policy plans can be shaped accordingly to allocate more materials to specific communities. This research also highlights the importance of integration of redlining history into climate risk assessments and climate plans to ensure affected communities are included in urban resilience planning and decision-making.