London’s hottest and coolest neighbourhoods
A series of maps, created by a team of researchers at Western University, charts which neighbourhoods in London, Ont., are most at-risk during extreme heat events and, according to the creators, can be used by civic planners as an invaluable tool for building a cooler city in a warming world.
Climate change is making the world hotter and understanding its effects, from intensifying rainstorms and flooding, to wildfires and droughts — even how it affects our own bodies — is crucial to adapting our communities.
The maps, which are being made public for the first time by CBC News, lay bare the inequalities among the city’s neighbourhoods when it comes to cool haves and the hot, have-nots, according to James Voogt, a professor in the department of geography at Western University who studies how cities affect temperature and climate.
“Heat is a hazard and cool is a resource if you’re thinking about the summer,” he said. “We want to know where your hazards exist and where your resources exist.”
