Programs and Communities

Climatic changes have the potential to impact electricity generation in the U.S. Southwest and methods are needed for estimating how cities will be impacted. This study builds an electricity vulnerability risk index for two Southwest cities (Phoenix and Los Angeles) based on climate-related changes in electricity generation capacity. Planning reserve margins (PRM) are used to estimate the potential for blackouts and brownouts under future climate scenarios. Reductions in PRM occur in both cities in 2016 with the most significant reductions occurring in regions relying more heavily on hydropower.

Already the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States, extreme heat events (EHEs) are expected to occur with greater frequency, duration and intensity over the next century. However, not all populations are affected equally. Risk factors for heat mortality—including age, race, income level, and infrastructure characteristics—often vary by geospatial location. While traditional epidemiological studies sometimes account for social risk factors, they rarely account for intra-urban variability in meteorological characteristics, or for the interaction between social and meteorological risks.

This study aims to develop estimates of EHEs at an intra-urban scale for two major metropolitan areas in the Southwest: Maricopa County (Arizona) and Los Angeles County (California). EHEs are identified at a 1/8-degree (12 km) spatial resolution using an algorithm that detects prolonged periods of abnormally high temperatures. Downscaled temperature projections from three general circulation models (GCMs) are analyzed under three relative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios. Over the next century, EHEs are found to increase by 340-1800% in Maricopa County, and by 150-840% in Los Angeles County. Frequency of future EHEs is primarily driven by greenhouse gas concentrations, with the greatest number of EHEs occurring under the RCP 8.5 scenario. Intra-urban variation in EHEs is also found to be significant. Within Maricopa County, “high risk” regions exhibit 4.5 times the number of EHE days compared to “low risk” regions; within Los Angeles County, this ratio is 15 to 1.

The project website can be accessed here. 

The New Jersey Childhood Obesity Study was designed to provide vital information for planning, implementing, and evaluating interventions aimed at preventing childhood obesity in five New Jersey municipalities: Camden, Newark, New Brunswick, Trenton, and Vineland. These five communities are being supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids program to plan and implement policy and environmental change strategies to prevent childhood obesity. Effective interventions for addressing childhood obesity require community-specific information on

who is most at risk and on contributing factors that can be addressed through tailored interventions that meet the needs of the community. Based on comprehensive research, a series of reports are being prepared for each community to assist in planning effective interventions.

The main components of the study were:

• A household telephone survey of 1700 families with 3–18 year old children,

• De-identified heights and weights measured at public schools,

• Assessment of the food and physical activity environments using objective data.

This report presents the results from the household survey. Reports based on school body mass index (BMI) data and food and physical activity environment data are available at www.cshp.rutgers.edu/childhoodobesity.htm.

The maps in this chartbook describe the food environment in ewark in terms of access to supermarkets, smaller grocery stores, convenience stores, and limited service restaurants. Research shows that when residents have access to healthy food outlets, they tend to eat healthy.

• Food environment maps were created using geo-coded commercially available data of food outlets (InfoUSA, 2008 and Trade Dimensions, 2008) in Newark and in a 1 mile buffer area around Newark.

•Using the commercial data and additional investigation, food outlets were classified into different categories based on their likelihood of carrying healthy choices: supermarkets carry most healthy choices; smaller grocery stores carry fewer healthy choices; convenience stores and limited service restaurants are likely to carry mostly unhealthy choices.

• Access to different types of food outlets was computed at the census block group level based on concentration of stores / restaurants per unit area and is reported as food outlet densities.

• Food outlet density maps are compared with Census 2000 data to visualize accessibility of healthy foods in neighborhoods with different characteristics.

Data Sources: Info USA food outlet 2008 data

Trade Dimensions food outlet 2008 data

Census 2000 data

New Jersey Department of Education 2008-2009 data

The maps in this chartbook describe the food environment in Trenton in terms of access to supermarkets, smaller grocery stores, convenience stores, and limited service restaurants. Research shows that when residents have access to healthy food outlets, they tend to eat healthy.

•Food environment maps were created using geo-coded commercially available data of food outlets (InfoUSA, 2008 and Trade Dimensions, 2008) in Trenton and in a 1 mile buffer area around Trenton.

•Using the commercial data and additional investigation, food outlets were classified into different categories based on their likelihood of carrying healthy choices: supermarkets carry most healthy choices; smaller grocery stores carry fewer healthy choices; convenience stores and limited service restaurants are likely to carry mostly unhealthy choices.

• Access to different types of food outlets was computed at the census block group level based on concentration of stores / restaurants per unit area and is reported as food outlet densities.

•Food outlet density maps are compared with Census 2000 data to visualize accessibility of healthy foods in neighborhoods with different characteristics.

Data Sources: Info USA food outlet 2008 data

Trade Dimensions food outlet 2008 data

Census 2000 data

New Jersey Department of Education 2008-2009 data

The maps in this chartbook describe the physical activity environment in Newark in terms of geographic distribution of parks and physical activity facilities. Research shows that people who have access to these facilities are more likely to be physically active.

• The maps in this chartbook were created using physical activity facilities data from a commercial database (lnfoUSA, 2008), data from city departments, as well as information obtained from systematic web searches. The maps present data for the city of Newark and for a 1 mile buffer area around Newark.

• Physical activity centers include private and public facilities which offer physical activity opportunities for children 3-18 years of age.

• Physical activity environment maps are compared with Census 2000 data to visualize accessibility of physical activity opportunities in neighborhoods with different characteristics.

• Poverty level presented in this chartbook are based on the 2000 Federal Poverty Guidelines.

• Crime rates in Newark are presented at the census block group level as relative crime risk (CrimeRisk) obtained from a commercial data source (Applied Geographic Solutions, 2008). CrimeRisk - an index value derived from modeling the relationship between crime rates and demographics data - is expressed as the risk of crime occurring in a specific block group relative to the national average. For this chartbook, data on total CrimeRisk, which includes personal and property crimes, are reported.

The electric transportation (ET) and electric vehicle (EV) landscape is currently inequitable and inaccessible for many living in the Phoenix area. This is especially true for people without single-occupancy vehicles (SOVs), who are reliant on public transit, or do not live in the Metropolitan center. Transit is intricately related to the environment and, due to societal and political structures, most of these environmental injustices are concentrated in low-income and minority communities. The lack of political representation within these communities has led to increased exposure to a variety of issues. Equitable transportation has also suffered due to a significant gap in addressing the needs of these underserved communities (Bolin, et al., 2005). The concentration of inequities and environmental injustices is a direct result of the lack of representation. Therefore, equitable and inclusive collaboration on solutions is required in order to maintain fairness and access, (Clement, 2020) considering the legacy of institutional harm within historically marginalized communities. The TE Activator was created by Salt River Project (SRP) and Anthesis Group, a sustainability consulting agency. The Activator is a group of Phoenix-area organizations interested in shaping the ET landscape to positively influence the well-being of Arizonans. With this in mind, they have asked our team to focus on making the transition to electric transportation equitable and inclusive. Our report details the current state of electric transportation nationally and locally, analyzes equitable EV/ET programs and utility plans across the country, and reviews the City of Tempe’s electric transportation related efforts. For this, we conducted listening sessions with a national expert, the City of Tempe, Tempe Community Action Agency, and CHISPA, creating a Community Listening Pilot Project based on the preliminary listening sessions. Through our research, listening, and discussions we compiled tiered recommendations for the TE Activator that suggest systemic policy changes based on community priorities. Accompanying the report is an Equity Roadmap, Community Listening Script, and one-page Debrief.