Hottest places to live?

 

This BBC article looks at people living in the hottest parts of the country.

This is defined by a data set which is called the Heat Hazard Score.

They are made for the OS by a company called 4 Earth Intelligence.

The potential heat hazard score for small geographical areas - known as a Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOA) - was calculated by 4 Earth Intelligence, who measured the average land surface temperature over a sample of days in the past three summers across Great Britain.

Deprivation data was taken from the latest English, Scottish and Welsh Indices of multiple deprivation (IMD). Each IMD is the nation's official measure of relative deprivation, or poverty, and is weighted heavily towards income, employment, education, and health.

The scores range from one to five, and provide an indicator of how likely it is that an area will experience high temperatures during hot weather, when compared with other areas in the surrounding neighbourhood.

As the BBC article explains, there are certain things factored into the calculation, such as the presence of water and vegetation.

A statistical method was used to standardise land surface temperatures, which involved combining satellite images for different dates over the past three years. The temperature data was then adjusted to consider the different average temperatures of each region, to highlight hotter areas across the country, while accounting for varying climates. Five is the highest score.

Normalising the temperatures of each region before calculating the score means the data highlights hotter areas in different parts of the country, despite having different climates.

This ONS report, one of several which were produced during COVID, explained that one in eight houses has no garden. This means no opportunity for shaded outside space...

It would be great to have a subset of data available for educational purposes, perhaps for a city such as Leeds which has a river and parks, and is also an OCR A/B Case Study city.

Uninhabitable Earth

Thanks to GoogleMapsMania for the tipoff to an interactive globe visualising some of the findings which influenced the latest and terrifying IPCC report on the state of the climate and the narrowing time frame for doing anything about it.

Produced by the German Morgenpost.

A few screenshots:

Climate Change - Teach with GIS

The new ESRI UK Education Team resources for teaching about the Climate Emergency have now been released and are ready for use. They explore climate change in the UK, and were produced in partnership with the Met Office.

They include Teaching Resources for different key stages including Primary.

They also include a Teacher Knowledge section.

This includes the useful resource on COP26 below.

A typically stylish and useful set of resources generously shared.

National Trust Climate Change Threat Map

This has appeared today and been mentioned on the BBC News site.

It's created using ArcGIS mapping from ESRI.

Visit the map here. A web app.

National Trust director for land and nature Harry Bowell said: "This map is a game-changer in how we face the threat climate change poses to the places we care for.

"While the data draws on a worst-case scenario, the map paints a stark picture of what we have to prepare for. But by acting now, and working with nature, we can adapt to many of these risks."

The charity says staff are already taking action to cope with rising temperatures:

Heat-tolerant plants are being grown at Ham House in London, which the map warns could often face 40C (104F) heat by 2040
At Lyme Park in Cheshire, which was hit by a major flood in 2019, trees are being planted on moorland to slow the flow of water and reduce flooding risks
At Mount Stewart in County Down, where rising sea levels have contributed to coastal erosion, a shelter against incoming water has been made
At Malham Tarn, in the Yorkshire Dales, where a 18th-Century barn collapsed due to soil shrinkage, teams will plant trees and use specific plants to manage the water table

The map plots the impacts of extreme heat and humidity, landslides, coastal erosion, shrinking and shifting ground due to wet and dry conditions known as "soil heave", and high winds, in 2020 and 2060.

Take a look and see how your own home area fares.