National Shade Map a Stroke of ‘Bruingenuity’

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A new national Shade Map spearheaded by experts at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation and the nonprofit American Forests made UCLA Magazine’s list of the top 25 “Bruinventions” of the 21st Century (so far).

The tool helps cities across the United States respond to extreme heat by mapping an essential climate solution: shade.

“Never before has it been this easy for communities in the U.S. to know how much shade they have, where it is and whether the source is buildings or vegetation,” said V. Kelly Turner, associate director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. The resource gives decision-makers in more than 360 cities and towns the data to guide local heat resilience efforts.

The top 25 Bruinventions, listed in the latest edition of UCLA Magazine, pays tribute to the long history of creativity and innovation by UCLA students, faculty and alumni. This century’s index of Bruingenuity includes scientific discoveries, technological wizardry, medical marvels, and ingenious gadgets.

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Keeping California Children Cool: Strategies for Safe Schools and Homes

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By Mara Elana Burstein

As heat waves become more frequent and intense, many California children face unsafe indoor temperatures where they spend most of their time — at home and at school. Access to cooling in homes and schools is now a public health necessity, not a luxury.

Building on years of research on heat resilience and school safety, the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation has released a report offering policymakers a menu of strategies to expand access to cooling in homes and schools. The recommendations focus on the installation and maintenance of air conditioning and other mechanical cooling systems, offering practical, evidence-based options for state leaders seeking to protect children where they live and learn.

Children shouldn’t have to choose between their health and their education. Our research shows that California can take immediate, concrete steps to make schools and homes safer from heat. — Lana Zimmerman, project manager and lead author of the report

The report outlines a set of policy and regulatory actions California leaders can adopt:

  • Set indoor temperature standards for schools and plan similar action during the 2031 Building Standards Code update, or sooner as an emergency health and safety measure.
  • Track cooling access in schools, as the state already does for homes.
  • Coordinate agencies through a state-level advisory committee.
  • Fund existing programs that support equitable access to indoor cooling by serving high-need schools, homes, and regions.
  • Centralize public information and simplify funding processes for local governments and communities.
  • Prioritize equity by investing in high-need regions and supporting workforce training for cooling system installation.

These strategies are informed by new data from the 2025 Luskin California Poll that reveal gaps in access to indoor cooling and public opinion on state action. In the survey, nearly half of parents said they’ve kept their kids home because of heat, and yet one in ten households with children lack working air conditioning (AC). Many more Californians avoid using their AC because of high energy bills.

“Expanding access to cooling is about more than comfort. It’s about health and equity,” said V. Kelly Turner, associate director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. “The solutions outlined in our report recognize that children in low-income households and communities of color are often the most exposed to heat and have the least resources to respond,” added Turner, who is also an associate professor of urban planning at UCLA Luskin.

As California implements new investments in school modernization, clean energy, and community resilience, this research offers a timely guide for aligning those efforts. The report, “Keeping Californians Safe with Cooling Systems in Homes and Schools,” underscores that keeping classrooms cool and homes safe is essential to a healthy, equitable future for the state’s children.

Helping America’s Schools Adapt to the Climate Era

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As the number of extreme heat days stretches later into the fall, many of the nation’s schools are seeking ways to adapt, but they’re often hindered by aging infrastructure and cuts to federal funding for climate upgrades.

Installing air conditioning or adding shade canopies to vast expanses of asphalt are effective but may come with red tape and a high price tag, said V. Kelly Turner, associate director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation.

“A lot of our schools are older and probably in need of modernization,” Turner told Time magazine. “And climate change is casting some light on the fact that they really are underfunded to do that.”

Treating schools as community centers is one strategy that could be beneficial around the country, said Turner, an associate professor of urban planning at UCLA Luskin.

“If it’s really hot, some schools just send kids home, but what if a child is going home to a home that has no air conditioning? Now we’ve sent them to a place that’s maybe just as unsafe,” she said. “But if schools are seen as more like community centers and resource hubs, then we can provide all-day-long air conditioning to 25% of the population in one site in the community.”

Turner on the Power of Shade to Combat Urban Heat

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UCLA Luskin urban planning professor Kelly Turner lends her expertise in urban planning and heat resilience to offer data-backed perspective on how shade — both leafy and architectural — is essential for public health. In a New York Times opinion piece, Turner challenges the conventional wisdom that shade makes public spaces less usable and desirable. She explains that shade can reduce outdoor heat burden as much as 30%, offering critical relief to vulnerable communities who bear the brunt of urban heat.

Turner most recently, in collaboration with American Forests, developed an innovative shade-mapping tool to identify where shade is most needed. These maps can guide transit planners to reroute bus stops to cooler corridors or encourage cities to add shade where it will have the most impact.

Though much of our current planning policy still prioritizes sunlight, Turner argues it’s time for a shift. As climate change accelerates, shadows shouldn’t be feared — they should be welcomed.

Turner on New Tool for Assessing Health Risks of Extreme Heat

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Kelly Turner, associate director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI), commented in an LAist story on a new tool to help people understand health risks they face from extreme heat. The California Communities Extreme Heat Scoring System, or CalHeatScore, is a pilot program that ranks risk from extreme heat by ZIP code into four categories — mild to severe. A ranking of “severe,” say the tool’s developers, could correspond with a higher temperature inland, as opposed to at the beach. “There’s so many mediating factors between a person, a hot day, and whether or not that person becomes ill,” said Turner, who is involved in evaluating the implementation of the tool. CalHeatScore is still in early stages of product development, but, said Turner, “It’s a stepping stone to the future in which heat warnings aren’t about the actual temperature threshold.” She explained, “They’re highly personalized — because exposure to heat and whether or not you get sick depends on factors that are more personal than universal.”

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Turner on Cooling Cities

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V. Kelly Turner, associate director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI), was interviewed for a NBC 7 story about the cooling impact of special surface coatings that may reduce heat by reflecting light instead of absorbing it. The story is focused on a parking lot in San Diego’s Mission Bay coated with a product designed to reduce surrounding temperatures, or the “urban heat island” effect. “Surfaces like asphalt are really, really hot because they soak up a lot of the sun’s energy and slowly re-radiate it back throughout the day,” Turner said. She added that a lighter surface can quickly reflect more of the sun’s heat and, as part of a comprehensive cooling approach, may drop the overall temperature in an urban area by a couple of degrees. Lighter pavement is a start, but the best way cities and people can get cooler is by adding more trees to create shade, she said.

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Turner on How Cities Can Help Shape Responses to Heat

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A Smart Cities Dive brief on heat resilient cities cites V. Kelly Turner, associate professor of urban planning and associate director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI). The brief provides information from the federally funded Center for Heat Resilient Communities to cities interested in financial and technical assistance for extreme heat planning. Communities are eligible to apply by Jan. 24 for $10,000 and assistance to determine the impact of extreme heat on their area, assess their capacity to respond and design a “locally tailored blueprint for heat resilience,” according to the brief. Up to 10 cities will be selected. The center will “also be able to highlight how the experiences and local knowledge of diverse communities can help shape federal responses on heat,” said Turner, the center’s principal investigator. The Los Angeles-based Center for Heat Resilient Communities is one of two heat resilience research centers established by the Biden administration in May.

Read the brief

 

Schools and Heat: An Extreme Challenge

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The Washington Post spoke to UCLA Luskin’s V. Kelly Turner about a new push to turn asphalt schoolyards into greener spaces that provide cooling relief at a time of rising temperatures. Turner has documented surface temperatures of 145 degrees Fahrenheit on playground asphalt, and alternatives such as rubber and artificial turf can get even hotter. “Schools are basically shade deserts,” said Turner, associate director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. Yet some districts have been slow to plant trees or install shade structures, citing funding, liability, maintenance and safety issues. “Everybody knows how to design a cool space: You put in more greenery, a ton of shade, you have lots of cross-ventilation. The problem is funding,” Turner said. “Are voters prepared to really pony up the money to make our schools safe for children in 20 or 30 years?” Turner also spoke to the Associated Press, CalMatters, Hechinger Report, LAist and The Atlantic about the impact of extreme heat on school campuses.

Read the Washington Post story

 

Establishing a Renter’s Right to Air Conditioning

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A Smart Cities Dive article examining local policies that establish a renter’s right to cooling equipment cited two experts from the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, Gregory Pierce and V. Kelly Turner. A number of cities are mandating cooling requirements, but in many cases tenants are still on the hook for their energy bills. Pierce recommended that cities and utilities work together to make cooling more affordable, particularly during hotter weather. Turner said any equity-oriented program must involve listening to community members about the tough choices they must make, and she encouraged local governments to act swiftly: “The question is, ‘Can we get something on the books to at least give people a fighting chance of having a safe thermal environment?” A separate article by The Good Men Project cited a Center for Innovation report that found that, in California, 29% of renters, compared to 20% of homeowners, do not have central or room air conditioners.

Read the Smart Cities Dive article
Read the Good Men Project article

 

Extreme Heat’s Rising Toll on Public Health

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News outlets seeking expertise on the impact of extreme heat have called on V. Kelly Turner, associate director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. Turner spoke to The New York Times about emergency rooms nationwide struggling to treat life-threatening heat-related illnesses. “It’s difficult for us to know how many people are impacted by extreme heat when we look at emergency room data,” Turner said. Around 2,300 people were reported to have died from heat-related illnesses in the United States in 2023 — triple the annual average between 2004 and 2018 — but that number may be an undercount, since many hospitals use software that does not include codes for heat-related conditions. Turner also spoke with Spectrum News about a California ballot measure that would allow the state to borrow $10 billion to address climate change. “The investment today is going to save us in the future because we will only see worse, more intense, longer heat waves, longer heat seasons impacting more areas of the state,” Turner said. 

Read the New York Times article
Watch the Spectrum News report