DEC Releases Advanced Urban Heat Island Mapping Tools to Help Communities Combat Extreme Heat
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced today the release of advanced heat mapping tools, including high-resolution heat exposure maps and web-based decision support tools for the entire state. The tools are designed to help the State and local communities better understand, plan for, and address extreme heat on the neighborhood and street corridor level. The tools, a central action of Governor Hochul’s Extreme Heat Action Plan (EHAP), were developed in partnership with the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) and Davey Tree.
“More frequent extreme heat and severe weather due to climate change continues to threaten our environment and New Yorkers with damaging impacts to air quality, public health, and local infrastructure,” said DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton. “The development of these advanced Urban Heat Island mapping tools in partnership with SUNY ESF and Davey Tree further helps communities, particularly overburdened disadvantaged communities, better plan for and adapt to extreme heat to increase resilience and improve quality of life.”
Communities across New York State are at risk of more severe impacts from increased heat due to climate change. Infrastructure traps and stores heat throughout the day and reduces cooling at night, which is known as the urban heat island (UHI) effect. In 2022, Governor Hochul signed legislation directing DEC to study the impacts of disproportionate heat conditions in urban areas, particularly in disadvantaged communities (DACs).
An initial output of this work was the preliminary hottest hour maps, released in 2025. These maps use historical data to identify current conditions of heat exposure intensity throughout New York State, allowing users to assess heat exposure in terms of hottest recorded hour temperatures and to identify heat islands as areas with higher daytime maximum temperatures than surrounding, less developed areas.
DEC released two new tools for examining extreme heat based on past, current, and future conditions, and also in terms of intensity, duration, and frequency: the Extreme Heat Mapper and the Heat Trends Explorer. The Extreme Heat Mapper allows users to view temperature maps for select hours of historical and future heat events. The Heat Trends Explorer allows users to compare heat patterns between areas and compare future changes in heat. These tools will help communities reflect on recent heat experiences, identify areas of greatest concern, and plan for a safer, cooler, and more resilient future.
These new tools incorporate valuable stakeholder input, including from a technical advisory panel with representatives of local governments, planning and adaptation professionals, and environmental justice organizations. This feedback includes accessibility enhancements to the tool, incorporation of useful data layers to enable more effective analysis, and improvements to representing heat exposure, so that communities can more easily understand how extreme heat unfolds across neighborhoods.
The mapping tools, in combination with other tools, can help inform how State agencies and local planners connect and coordinate resilience investments based on where impacts, vulnerabilities, and needs are greatest. State investments are available to support local communities in planning for and adaption to extreme heat, including as they identify them using the mapping tools: The Climate Smart Communities grants program in particular offers funding local governments and local public authorities to develop heat action plans, stand up cooling centers, and implement community-scale planting projects to reduce heat islands. More information about available funding resources are available at DEC’s Extreme Heat Action Plan website.
The UHI Mapping Toolkit helps DEC meet Governor Kathy Hochul’s directive to study the impacts of disproportionate heat conditions in DACs and implements recommendations in the Extreme Heat Action Plan. SUNY ESF entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with DEC, which has been extended into 2027, with $2 million in funding through the New York State Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) to support climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The toolkit can be applied across a wide variety of geographies and climate regions across the state, with a particular focus on DACs with high concentrations of urban heat. Visit the website for more information.
For more information about the UHI Mapping Toolkit, visit DEC’s Extreme Heat website.
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