Coping with Heat: Community Perceptions and Experiences of Urban Forests in Metro Vancouver, Canada

Keywords: Urban forests, heat resilience, environmental justice, health equity, community engagement
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 39

Abstract

Due to the 2021 Western North America heat wave (late June to mid-July), there were unprecedented temperatures and heat-related morbidity/mortality, particularly in British Columbia. Given the substantial societal and health impacts of heat, there is a crucial need to identify strategies to address these challenges and protect individuals across population groups, especially those considered to be most vulnerable. Urban forests are an efficient solution to reduce urban temperatures via shading and evapotranspiration, thereby contributing to climate resilience and mitigating heat-related health impacts. However, underserved urban residents often have limited access to urban forests and their cooling benefits. It is not entirely understood how urban residents’ preferences and social, economic, and environmental factors impact their heat-coping strategies. This limits the capacity of municipalities to design urban greenspaces that meet the heat resilience needs of diverse populations. Using a survey and semi-structured interviews, we explore how heat-vulnerable urban residents in Metro Vancouver, Canada use and experience urban forests as a heat-coping mechanism. This study hypothesizes that urban residents with intersecting heat-vulnerabilities may have an increased reliance on street trees for cooling, related to hotter environments and decreased access to cooling mechanisms such as A/C. Heat-vulnerable residents who do not have equitable access to quality urban forests may also feel a decreased ability to access their neighbourhood or city. Ultimately, this paper argues that an increased appreciation and integration of actors’ views and preferences, power relations, physical infrastructure, and social networks is necessary when planning for future climate change events using nature-based solutions.