Tucson CBS Affiliate Turns to Sustainable Built Environments Professor for Insight on the Dangers of Hiking in Southern Arizona Heat

In a series covering "Monsoon 2021" broadcast June 14, Tucson CBS affiliate TV station KOLD News 13 interviewed Ladd Keith, assistant professor of planning and sustainable built environments in the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona, on how "hiking in heat can have deadly repercussions in Southern Arizona."

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The story notes that there were more than 500 heat-related deaths in Arizona last year, “the most deaths caused by heat exposure in the past 10 years.”

“Deaths are increasing and that’s something to worry about,” says Keith. Temperatures will continue to climb in the face of climate change.

“If we don’t get global emissions under control,” he says, “we’re looking at an 8.5-degree increase for the southwest by 2100, which would mean about 45 more days per year that would be above 100 degrees.”

Keith, who joined CAPLA in 2009, is an interdisciplinary researcher working at the intersection of urban planning and climate change to create more sustainable and resilient cities. He has over a decade of experience working with diverse stakeholders to solve complex urban challenges in cities across the U.S. His current research explores urban heat governance and how cities can increase heat resilience through the mitigation and management of heat. In addition to founding and leading CAPLA’s Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Built Environments, Keith teaches public participation and dispute resolution and climate action planning.

Header photo by Peter Perhac, courtesy Pixabay.