Last week, I attended an environmental justice workshop held by my site placement. During this workshop, we discussed ways we could collaborate on our projects and planned for future environmental workshops. The specific focus of the workshop I attended was on implementing heat resilience in cities. I learned that cities can enhance their heat resilience through cooling centers, green and blue infrastructure, lighter-colored roofs and pavements, and urban tree canopies.

We then conducted research on how different cities across the United States are addressing their own heat resilience challenges. My partner and I focused on Los Angeles and discovered that the city plans to have at least 73 city-run facilities as cooling centers this summer, a significant increase from the 16 cooling centers in the past.

In the end, we created our own 3-D models of a “dream city” that incorporated all the necessary facilities and infrastructure for a heat-resilient urban environment. In the end we compared our 3-D models and discussed how we could combine our ideas together. I had a lot of fun and had the opportunity to meet many other students who shared a passion for the environment! See you next time!