Principal Investigator: Atticus Jaramillo, Assistant Professor, Real Estate & Urban Planning, Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture

Co-Investigator: Heidi Brown, Professor & Program Director, College of Public Health 

Co-Investigator: Ladd Keith, Associate Professor & Distinguished Scholar, College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture 

Residential Cooling Systems, Extreme Heat Exposure, and Heat-Related Illness

This study will examine how the prevalence and spatial distribution of residential cooling system types (e.g., evaporative vs. refrigerant) in Arizona relate to indoor heat exposure, neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics, and heat-related illness (HRI). Lack of access to residential cooling is a well-established determinant of socioeconomic disparities in heat exposure and HRI (1-2). However, in Arizona—where over 90% of homes have some form of cooling—a simple binary indicator of access may be too crude to capture meaningful differences in vulnerability (3). Building on prior work, we will integrate property assessment records from Cotality, which provide detailed information on residential cooling systems; Body Heat Storage (BHS) index estimates; and HRI events from ADHS EMS records. The project is feasible within the SCORCH timeline because we already have access to, or agreements in place for, all required data. The SCORCH funding will thus provide the support needed to integrate these datasets and assess whether differences in residential cooling system types meaningfully influence heat exposure and HRI risk. This study will produce a publicly available dataset of BHS index estimates and a report on how the analysis can be replicated. We plan to publish two peer-reviewed papers: one on spatial patterns of residential cooling system types, and another examining their links to heat exposure, neighborhood characteristics, and HRI risk. By generating high-resolution data and connecting environmental, sociodemographic, and HRI outcomes, we address SCORCH's priorities by filling a knowledge gap on climate-health vulnerability and providing a surveillance tool. Results will support future funding to expand the study to other regions and explore additional variables to better understand how residential cooling systems shape heat exposure and related health risks.

SCORCH Pilot Project Awardee | Track 1: Innovative Extreme Weather & Health Research 

Award: $50,000