Disproportionately higher exposure to urban heat in lower-income neighborhoods: a multi-city perspective
Open accessAbstract
A growing literature documents the effects of heat stress on premature mortality and other adverse health outcomes. Urban heat islands (UHI) can exacerbate these adverse impacts in cities by amplifying heat exposure during the day and inhibiting the body’s ability to recover at night. Since the UHI intensity varies not only across, but also within cities, intra-city variation may lead to differential impact of urban heat stress on different demographic groups. To examine these differential impacts, we combine satellite observations with census data to evaluate the relationship between distributions of both UHI and income at the neighborhood scale for 25 cities around the world. We find that in most (72%) cases, poorer neighborhoods experience elevated heat exposure, an incidental consequence of the intra-city distribution of income in cities. This finding suggests that policymakers should consider designing city-specific UHI reduction strategies to mitigate its impacts on the most socioeconomically vulnerable populations who may be less equipped to adapt to environmental stressors. Since the strongest contributor of intra-urban UHI variability among the physical characteristics considered in this study is a neighborhood’s vegetation density, increasing green space in lower income neighborhoods is one strategy urban policymakers can adopt to ameliorate some of UHI’s inequitable burden on economically disadvantaged residents.
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Small-scale case studies have found disparities in the distribution of urban heat island intensity within single cities or differences in exposure among population groups within a few cities in different countries.
“Small-scale case studies have found disparities in the distribution of urban heat island intensity within single cities23 or differences in exposure among population groups within a few cities in different countries24–26.”
From Disproportionate exposure to urban heat island intensity across major US cities (2021) · cites this paper as [25]
The Conclusion reports unequal urban heat exposure across socioeconomic groups in cities in both developed and developing countries. But §2.1 says this study examines 25 cities, and the Introduction contrasts it with limited case studies; describing this source as a small-scale study of only a few cities is not supported. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThese findings provide comprehensive evidence supporting the narrative presented by earlier case studies that minority and low-income communities bear the brunt of the urban heat island effect, air temperature, and heat stress in individual or multicity studies.
“These findings provide comprehensive evidence supporting the narrative presented by earlier case studies that minority and low-income communities bear the brunt of the urban heat island effect23,25,26,29–32,35, air temperature23, and heat stress31 in individual or multicity studies.”
From Disproportionate exposure to urban heat island intensity across major US cities (2021) · cites this paper as [25]
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredResults from ref. 25 are difficult to generalize because the sociodemographic information comes from a variety of sources with distinct definitions and methods, and the sample of global cities was chosen in response to data constraints rather than random sampling.
“While illustrative, these results are difficult to generalize since the sociodemographic information comes from a variety of sources with distinct definitions and methods, and the sample of global cities was chosen in response to data constraints rather than random sampling.”
From Disproportionate exposure to urban heat island intensity across major US cities (2021) · cites this paper as [25]
Ref. 25 found that the distribution of annual urban heat island exposure and income at the neighborhood level tended to favor those with higher incomes in 18 out of 25 selected global cities.
“Examining the relationship between the distribution of annual urban heat island exposure and income at the neighborhood level, ref. 25 find that the distribution tended to favor those with higher incomes in 18 out of 25 selected global cities.”
From Disproportionate exposure to urban heat island intensity across major US cities (2021) · cites this paper as [25]
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Disproportionate exposure to urban heat island intensity across major US cities
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Urban Heat Risk: Protocols for Mapping and Implications for Colombo, Sri Lanka
Emmanuel, R., Jalal, M., Ogunfuyi, S., Maharoof, N., Zala, M., Perera, N., & Ratnayake, R. (2023) · Atmosphere · doi:10.3390/atmos14020343 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
- Authors
- Chakraborty, T., Hsu, A., Manya, D., & Sheriff, G.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- Yale-NUS College (SG)
- Arizona State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hsu, A
- Venue
- Environmental Research Letters
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Published
- 2019-09-30
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 105003
- ISSN
- 1748-9326 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2968473890
- Cited by
- 362
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 93 · 2025: 84 · 2024: 74 · 2023: 49 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 10
- FWCI
- 6.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Environmental Research Letters (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Samuel Family Foundation (AWDR14157)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Urban Heat Island Mitigation
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Environmental Justice and Health Disparities
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Climate Change and Health Impacts
- Keywords
- urban heat island, urban heat stress, socioeconomic disparities, neighborhood income, heat exposure, green spaces, vegetation density, health disparities, satellite thermal imagery
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