Justice40 - The NIHHIS Urban Heat Island mapping program is a covered program under the Biden Administration’s Justice40 initiative. As such we are required to track and report on the allocation of benefits to Environmental Justice (EJ) communities. Tracking and reporting requirements have not yet been finalized, but we anticipate that communities involved in this program in 2022 will be required to assist with tracking and reporting, and that communities will use readily available demographic information (CDC SVI, EIG’s Distressed Communities Index, or EJ Screen) to ensure adequate coverage of EJ communities.
Environmental Justice will be one factor that we consider in prioritizing applications. While we await final guidance on how Justice40 tracking will be implemented, we encourage you to consider the following in preparing your application:
- How does your county (or counties) rank nationally in terms of overall social vulnerability according to the CDC SVI tool?
- Within the spatial area you intend to map, do you have a plan for identifying and including EJ communities in the driving routes selected for the mapping campaign?
- Do you have plans for engaging underrepresented and EJ community members in the mapping process itself, such as by working with EJ organizations to recruit a diverse set of citizen scientists in the campaigns?
- Do you have plans to apply the mapping campaign outcomes to increase environmental justice and equity in heat resilience planning?
Going Global - We’re opening up mapping to global cities. For the 2022 mapping season we plan to run 1-2 campaigns in cities outside of the United States. We are partnering with the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN) to reach communities in other other countries.
Enhanced Observations - We are always looking for ways to improve these mapping campaigns to provide the best experience and data for cities. Thanks to feedback from our many partners, we will now be piloting stationary sensors in two communities in addition to the mobile transects we typically run in these campaigns. Stationary sensors will enhance coverage of cities in space and time, providing more information for decision-making. Communities selected to also deploy with stationary sensors will be taking on additional organizing responsibilities, organizing extra volunteers and managing the deployment and collection of ~20 sensors.
Heat Mapping Support from NOAA - NOAA and CAPA Strategies work together as part of a Public-Private Partnership to help cities understand how heat is distributed throughout communities, and to support subsequent decision making for the solutions to extreme heat. CAPA Strategies was chosen as the subcontractor by Harmonic International, which was competitively awarded a purchase agreement by NOAA. As such, we are using an application process to prioritize campaign communities, not a competition; we are accepting applications for interested organizations, not proposals. Community partners do not receive direct funding from NOAA in the form of a grant; CAPA strategies has been funded to perform a service on behalf of NOAA for the successful applicants. The principal organization (likely the application submitter) will still enter into a contractual relationship with CAPA Strategies for risk mitigation purposes, to ensure that borrowed mapping gear is properly cared for and returned. Staff time, remuneration of volunteers, and other expenses will not be covered through NOAA funds via this application. Please include in-kind and financial support to cover these expenses as matching funds in this application.