As R.I.’s temperatures grow hotter, local groups working to cool down ‘heat islands’

Rhode Island is the smallest, yet most urbanized state in the nation. The state contains 139 square miles of impervious surfaces, amounting to 13 percent of its land area, according to a 2022 study. These surfaces form an “intricate network of interactions and conditions such as elevated surface and air temperatures,” according to the study.

People living in these densely populated urban areas face higher temperatures than those in more leafy locations, and the phenomenon is exacerbated as the climate heats up. Scientists and advocates use the term “heat island” to describe an area that experiences many more days of extreme temperatures than those mere miles away.

Across Rhode Island, advocacy groups are planting trees, turning parking lots into community gardens, offering cooling centers like the one at Emmanuel House, and advocating for utility justice so everyone has air conditioning and running water during heat waves. Their efforts often focus on the state’s densely populated urban areas, including Providence’s Silver Lake, Elmwood, and West End neighborhoods with population densities of 14,987, 15,793, and 17,245 per square mile, respectively. In comparison, the city’s Blackstone neighborhood has a density of just 4,986 people per square mile.

Advocates said that “greening” neighborhoods by pursuing both on-the-ground actions and policy change will help keep them cooler as the planet warms.

Often, this literally means dirty work. “It’s very tangible,” said Amelia Rose, executive director of Groundwork RI, which creates community gardens, offers summer jobs to Providence youth, and advocates for compost initiatives statewide. The organization’s work is “not just advocacy or going to the State House and lobbying for a bill,” Rose said. Those actions are critical, too, she said, but getting plants into the ground allows residents to see visible, immediate results.

“Healthy Neighborhoods,” one of Groundwork’s initiatives in Providence, promotes greenspaces as a way to promote healthier communities. Rose’s projects have reclaimed parking lots and used the space to create community gardens. The organization now owns and cares for a total land area of about a half-acre throughout Providence, including two residential housing-size lots. Other endeavors included the launch of its urban farm and greenhouse in 2015. Groundwork is leading an effort to create a composting hub in the West End, and organizing tree plants in an effort to increase green infrastructure.

“It’s a community pride type of thing. It changes the way people view their neighborhood,” Rose said.

Not only are higher temperatures less comfortable, people’s health suffers. People living in heat islands are often impoverished, and as a result, they tend to have higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, and asthma. This makes them more vulnerable to heat stress than those living in greener, and therefore cooler, neighborhoods.

Marzullo said he has noticed that as temperatures rise, Emmanuel House residents experience visibly deteriorating health. “It’s very dangerous for some of my clients. The older clients, especially the clients that have breathing problems. … I see them coming in here, they’re beet red and purple,” he said.

Cassie Tharinger of the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program holds monthly tree-planting parties in Providence. The program focuses its efforts on the most vulnerable communities: densely built areas that experience eight to 10 days above 90 degrees every year. Elsewhere, near the coast, temperatures reach 90 degrees only about once a year, at the peak of summer heat, according to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

While some of this temperature difference stems from ocean breezes, urban heat islands endure disproportionately higher temperatures because of their built-up environments. Concrete and other common construction materials do not reflect light well; they absorb more heat and foster hot microclimates, according to a study in the International Journal of Environmental Monitoring and Analysis.

The Environmental Protection Agency defines heat islands as urbanized areas with structures such as buildings, roads, and other infrastructure that absorb more sun than natural landscapes. These surfaces re-emit that heat, increasing daytime temperatures so that these neighborhoods reach average temperatures that are about 1 to 7 degrees higher than those in outlying areas.

It’s important to employ a wide array of methods, said Jessica Wilson, design planner for the city of Lowell, Mass. Her office advocates for policies, plants trees, and designs parks for the city.

“Confronting environmental injustices means both on-the-ground work like planting trees, but also advocating for policy changes,” Wilson said.

“All the tree planting in the world, as much as that provides shade and a million benefits, on the hottest day of the year, that’s not enough,” she added.

High density means more buildings, more traffic, and more concrete. One area in Providence’s South Side has a 47 percent poverty rate and just a 6 percent canopy rate — the lowest percentage of canopy cover in all of Providence, according to the Tree Equity Score, which measures levels of tree canopy coverage in cities nationwide.

Neighborhoods with higher poverty rates and more people of color are also the neighborhoods with the least tree canopy. This lower-income demographic is also at high-risk for health risks from extreme heat, according to the state Department of Health.

Environmental justice advocates, furious with the disproportionate impacts of urban heat islands on Rhode Island residents of color, pressed the state to protect residents from utility shut-offs during heat waves. In 2007, the state passed the nation’s first summer utility shut-off moratorium. When the state temperature average reaches 90 degrees, no households in the state can have their air conditioning, running water, or gas terminated by utilities.

While advocates have welcomed this step, the policy is “flawed,” said Camilo Viveiros, director of the George Wiley Center, a labor union that organizes for “utility justice.” Temperatures vary greatly statewide, and temperatures in urban heat islands are well above the 90 degree threshold even when the state average is well below it. Given the conditions of the policy and the varying conditions statewide, the moratorium rarely goes into effect.

Raffini, the youth program director for the Southside Community Land Trust, who only uses her first name, has lived in the South Side of Providence for most of her life, in a neighborhood that includes the most prominent heat islands in Providence.

Raffini said the ideal South Side neighborhood would provide safety, gardens, green space, and summer jobs for young people — including in community gardens. Central to the Southside Community Land Trust’s mission is integrating racial justice work with their hands-on gardening practices.

Any urban greening projects need to go hand-in-hand with education that links racial history with the importance of environmentalism. Not everyone is going to do this sort of work, Raffini said, but she encourages everyone to notice its value.

“I don’t want you to walk a mile in my shoes. I want you to stand in my garden,” she said.

Maya Kelly is a freshman at Brown University studying Urban Studies.