Planning and Sustainable Built Environments Professor Ladd Keith Featured in 'Heat, Health and COVID-19' Podcast

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Ladd Keith, assistant professor of planning and chair of the Sustainable Built Environments undergraduate degree program in the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona, was featured in a June 30, 2020 Vitalyst Spark podcast on "Heat, Health and COVID-19."

"COVID-19 didn’t respond to increasing heat, but our natural resources, our built environments and our health and well-being most certainly do," begins the podcast., which is the first of a two-part dialogue on heat. The wide-ranging discussion with Keith, the moderator and two participants from the Maricopa County Department of Public Health and Arizona State University's School of Geographic Sciences and Urban Planning touches on such topics as coalitions, governments, air conditioning, bus stops and community health. 

Keith, who joined CAPLA in 2009, is an interdisciplinary researcher working at the intersection of urban planning and climate science and explores how climate action planning can make more sustainable and resilient cities. He is currently the principal investigator of a NOAA-funded research project evaluating the use of urban heat maps in urban planning and is co-investigator on a project developing community climate profiles tailored to local needs. In addition to founding and leading the Sustainable Built Environments program, Keith teaches public participation and dispute resolution and planning for urban resilience. He contributed to the development and analysis of a number of land use and development regulations, comprehensive plans, hazard mitigation plans and climate action plans and recently completed a full eight-year term on the City of Tucson's Planning Commission.