Richmond's 2017 Heat Watch Pilot — Seeding CAPA Strategies' Global Urban Heat-Mapping Network

In July 2017, the Science Museum of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Richmond and Groundwork RVA partnered with Portland State University urban-heat researcher Vivek Shandas to run the first large community heat-mapping campaign in Richmond, Virginia. On one of the summer's hottest days, 15 volunteer teams drove fixed routes at 6am, 3pm and 7pm with car-mounted temperature and humidity sensors, collecting more than 60,000 readings across the city.
The resulting high-resolution map showed that Richmond's most built-up, tree-poor neighbourhoods — disproportionately lower-income and historically redlined areas — ran 15–20°F hotter than leafier parts of the city. City officials cited the data directly in Mayor Levar Stoney's commitment to build five new parks in the city's Southside, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation used the maps to direct nearly $1 million toward community-driven tree-planting around schools, faith centres and community sites.
NOAA subsequently funded CAPA Strategies, the firm that formalised Richmond's field protocol, to run Heat Watch campaigns nationally; by 2024 the method had been used in over 120 U.S. and international communities. Houston and Harris County's 2024 H3AT campaign — the largest single-day version to date — sent more than 150 volunteers over 3,664 miles of routes, feeding results directly into a tree-equity analysis prioritising planting sites by heat exposure and canopy loss.

Read the full analysis: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-case-studies/where-do-we-need-shade-mapping-urban-heat-islands-richmond