Community Storytelling
& Heat Impact

Layering stories and data to illustrate a more accurate representation of how these issues impact the BIPOC community in Multnomah County, Oregon.

Photo Credit: Shawn Perez

Project Goals

The goal of this project is to pair qualitative data (community stories and feedback) with quantitative data (temperature, tree canopy, maps) and visually present how climate change impacts our frontline communities in Multnomah County. Too often we see headlines and studies presenting ‘disproportionate’ impacts on Black/brown and low income communities, but that work is often missing the personalization and community involvement of those most impacted – in a vacuum of academia or government. This project aims to show the importance of qualitative data in the form of community stories and how it creates a fuller picture of how communities are impacted by lack of tree canopy, rising temperatures, and the resources needed.

Community Stories

With collaboration with the project partners, Coalitions of Communities of Color, a survey was sent to community networks for responses to the following Environmental Justice (EJ) Indicator questions, focusing on heat response, tree canopy, and resources:

Heat

How do extreme temperatures, like the heatwave in the summer of 2020 or the ice storm in the winter of 2021, impact you, your household and community?

Heat Responses

Thinking about extreme heat, how do you stay comfortable in your home during the summer?

Trees

What are things (e.g., trees providing shade, water fountains, public pools, shade spots, cooling centers) in your neighborhood that help you stay cool in the summer, and how have these things changed over the years (e.g., less trees to provide shade)?

Resources Needed

What supports (e.g. energy assistance programs, cooling and heating technology, transportation to cooling centers) would benefit you and your neighborhood during extreme heat or cold? What supports have helped in the past?

Data

Tree Map

Heat Dome Map

Tree Map

Heat Dome Map

Why is this important?

Public Health

Almost 100 people died in Oregon as a result of the unprecedented 2021 heat dome, when temperatures reached a record-breaking 116 degrees.

Community Impact

Frontline (Black/brown & low income) communities face the first and worst impacts of climate change globally. In Portland, it is also a cumulative impact from the displacement and historical impact of redlining in Portland.

Environmental Factors

Tree canopy is dwindling in Oregon and decreasing over time (30% in 2020), which prevents natural cooling during hot temperatures. Increased pavement and development leads to hotter temperatures felt – some concrete was over 20 degrees hotter than the atmospheric temperature.

Community Storytelling& Heat Impact