Dallas’ heat islands need scientific solutions

No matter where you live in Texas, this summer has been miserably hot.

Temperatures have soared well over 100 degrees for the last two months, and the forecast suggests that triple-digit heat might continue into September. Dallas County’s Parkland Health & Hospital System emergency department has reported more than 200 heat-related visits this summer, nearly six times the number of patients it treated for heat last year. As summer temperatures get more dangerous each year, Dallas needs long-term solutions to mitigate the heat. Residents should feel encouraged by the fact that the city has recently taken some steps to do that.

Aside from Dallas’ location and meteorological factors it can’t control, such as the heat dome of 2023, the way the city is built also makes temperatures feel more extreme.

Buildings, roads and empty parking lots made of concrete tend to absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than green areas. Parts of the city where there isn’t much vegetation become “islands” of higher temperatures. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, these heat islands can be up to seven degrees hotter than surrounding areas in a city.

Dallas participated in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s urban heat island mapping program for the first time this summer. About 100 volunteers had their cars fitted with temperature sensors and drove down specific streets three times a day. The data collected will be aggregated to create a detailed map of temperature differences in the city.

Carlos Evans, director of the city’s Office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability, told us that his office used to rely on satellite and census data to track heat islands. Evans said the new, on-the-ground data will be used by public works and other departments to decide where to prioritize planting trees and use reflective surfaces rather than concrete.

To that end, the city also recently joined the Smart Surfaces Coalition, a nonprofit that will provide data and tools to help the city apply for federal infrastructure grant funds to pay for reflective and porous surfaces as well as green spaces. The partnership is in the early stages, so no projects have been identified yet, but the city is committing to a three-year, no-cost technical assistance program.

The coalition helps cities conduct a cost-benefit analysis regarding smart surfaces such as shingled or stone roofs that reflect sunlight or coatings for asphalt pavements that have a cooling effect. A report about Baltimore, one of the coalition member cities, lays out the potential changes in temperature depending on the use of different materials in specific neighborhoods and provides recommendations for each area depending on the combination of pricing and infrastructure that makes the most sense. This kind of support would help Dallas realistically implement solutions based on the heat island data.

As city officials rethink zoning rules such as surface parking requirements, they should also consider how urban planning strategies guided by data can help blunt some of the effects of climate change.

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