Extreme Heat Resilience

In July 2024, I took the role of postdoctoral research associate with Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) at the University of Arizona. CLIMAS is a Climate Adaptation Partnership (CAP), funded by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that includes experts from social, physical, and natural sciences who collaborate with partners across the Southwest to develop sustainable solutions for regional climate challenges. Under the guidance of Associate Professor of Planning and Sustainable Built Environments Ladd Keith, my work aims to bridge climate science and decision-making to advance heat resilience in rural, tribal, and border communities in the U.S. Southwest. This project also supports nationwide heat action planning efforts through the new National Integrated Heat Health System Information System’s (NIHHIS) Center for Heat Resilient Communities.

Our first small publication, drawing from our rural heat work, published on the American Association of Geographers’ Just Rural Futures blog.

Boyer, A.L., Ahn, M. & Keith, L. 02/22/2025. Expanding the focus: toward heat equity in rural areas. Just Rural Futures, American Association of Geographers' Rural Geography Specialty Group

In the summer of 2023, I was still working on water and river conservation issues. However, I found myself stuck in Phoenix, waiting for my immigration status to be changed to permanent resident. I spent the entire summer under the scorching heat. My colleague Brian F. O’Neill—then at Arizona State University— and I began turning our shared experience into fieldwork.

Our zine Heat Diary: Visualizing the Geography of Heat is the result: a blend of street photography, field notes, and personal reflections from two political ecologists walking the overheated sidewalks of the hottest major city in the United States.

What is extreme heat, and who does it impact?
Heat is not just a matter of temperature—it is an urgent social, political, and ecological issue. As climate change intensifies, extreme heat disproportionately harms the most vulnerable. While the wealthy remain sheltered in air-conditioned interiors, unhoused individuals, low-income workers, and marginalized communities face unrelenting exposure to asphalt, concrete, and the invisible weight of environmental neglect.

How do communities confront and adapt to it?
Through the lens of urban ethnography and street photography, we explore how people navigate a city that is increasingly inhospitable. We question the assumptions that technological fixes will save us and examine how capitalism perpetuates vulnerability and deepens inequality in the face of climate stress.

This zine asks not only what extreme heat does to bodies and infrastructures—but what it reveals about the social contracts that bind and divide us. In Phoenix, as elsewhere, the climate crisis is not evenly distributed. And as temperatures rise, so too do the stakes of who gets to survive—and how.

The zine is available on the GeoZONe Zine Repository: https://geoz.one/

This poster was presented at the Arizona Postdoctoral Research Conference, held at the University of Arizona in September 2024. I am part of a team of three postdoctoral researchers from diverse disciplines—Geography, Public Policy, and Urban Planning—collaborating on cross-cutting research to address heat resilience. Our work aims to advance innovative and impactful solutions for both urban and rural communities facing extreme heat challenges. We organize our research around three core pillars: a critical geography of heat resilience, urban planning in pursuit of heat resilience, and collaborative, polycentric governance. Click on the poster for a more readable version.

Cover photography by Brian O'Neill, Phoenix, hottest summer on record - August 2023