Salem residents will have the opportunity to be part of an effort later this month to help the city identify where more trees and greenspace are needed to keep the city cool and steady through heat waves.  For the work, people will drive around the city with special equipment to collect data on temperatures around Salem. The work, known as heat mapping, comes as intense heat waves have become increasingly common in Oregon. July and August are forecasted by the National Weather Service to be hotter than usual across the globe.  The city is asking volunteers to sign up online to have a heat sensor temporarily attached to their vehicles, and to commit to driving three routes throughout the day on Saturday, July 25. Up to 100 people can volunteer. Each route would require one hour of driving and a volunteer orientation will take place on Tuesday, July 14, from 5:30-6:30 p.m.  Data collected by volunteers will then be turned into a map which will help city officials pinpoint heat-prone areas and to target them with heat mitigation strategies which could include removing some paved surfaces, increasing trees and green spaces and creating shade structures, city spokesman Jason Roberts said.  He said the Recovery Outreach Community Center, a local mental health and recovery service, has funding set aside to support the heat mapping project. The organization is working to secure more funding and will provide modest stipends for volunteers, he said.   The data collection day is tentatively scheduled for July 25, however, Julianah Douglas, director of the city’s Climate Action Plan, said the temperature has to be in the 90s for the data to be usable. She said if the weather does not cooperate, the collection day will be rescheduled for Aug. 1. The heat mapping data will then be processed and turned into a detailed map by Portland-based consultant CAPA Strategies LLC, which focuses on comprehensive hazard planning, according to CAPA’s website.  A similar heat mapping initiative in Portland in 2024 showed that temperatures vary widely across the metropolitan area during hot summer days, the Oregonian reported. Salem’s mapping will help the city better target resources in parts of the city that tend to get hotter because of environmental factors like too much concrete or not enough trees, among other factors, Douglas said.  “Those routes will have the GPS and the air temperature and humidity censor data and CAPA will create these really rich, in depth heat maps that can show where in the city is experiencing disproportionate amounts of heat burden, and with those maps we will be able to help identify areas that need additional investment in terms of different types of heat mitigation strategies,” Douglas said. “If we are looking at planting trees, if we are looking at access to green space, if we are looking at walking and biking paths and how to make low emission transportation more comfortable and desirable to participate in.”  “All kinds of things it could really help with,” Douglas said.  Preparing for hotter summers is part of the city’s overarching Climate Action Plan strategy which lays out ways to improve the city’s resiliency to a changing climate.  The plan, instituted in 2021, seeks to slash the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2035. It provides a roadmap for dozens of initiatives around transportation, waste management, energy conservation and the city’s food system among others.  READ IT: Salem’s Climate Action Plan  The heat mapping campaign will be funded by utility rate funds, Roberts said. The project will be done in partnership with Marion County, the Recovery Outreach Community Center and other organizations, including the Resilience Hub Collaborative, and Local Governments for Sustainability.  On July 25, there will also be a Heat Awareness Resource Fair at the Cherriots Transit Center, at 555 Court Street N.E., from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  The event will focus on education around heat-related illness, introducing services to help mitigate heat exposure and free home energy assessments. The fair will also include crafts and activities for kids, a raffle and free items.  Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected].  SIGN UP: “Thank you for your fair, thorough, and fearless reporting.” Subscribing to Salem Reporter helps sustain in-depth, local reporting that Salem depends on. Invest in your community’s news. Subscribe today. The post Salem seeks volunteers to collect data for heat mapping initiative to pinpoint hotspots appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less