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In hot and humid climates, everyday, heat exposures continuously challenge the health of outdoor workers.

Background Social determinants of health (SDOH) contribute to unequal life expectancy (LE). Only a handful of papers have analyzed these relationships at the neighborhood level as opposed to the county level. This study draws on both the SDOH and social vulnerability literature to identify relevant factors affecting LE. Methods LE was calculated from mortality records for Florida from 2009 to 2013 for 3640 census tracts with reliable estimates. A spatial Durbin error model (SDEM) quantified the direction and magnitude of the factors to LE. The SDEM contains a spatial error term and jointly estimates both local and neighborhood associations. This methodology controls for non-independence between census tracts to provide unbiased statistical estimates. Results Factors significantly related to an increase in LE, include percentage (%) of the population who identify as Hispanic (beta coefficient [β]: 0.06, p-value [P] < 0.001) and % of age dependent populations (% population < 5 years old and % population > 65) (β: 0.13, P < 0.001). Conversely, the following factors exhibited significant negative LE associations, % of households with no automobile (β: -0.05, P < 0.001), % of mobile homes (β: -0.02, P < 0.001), and % of female headed households (β: -0.11, P < 0.001). Conclusions Results from the SDEM demonstrate social vulnerability indicators account for additional geographic LE variability beyond commonly studied SDOH. Empirical findings from this analysis can help local health departments identify drivers of spatial health disparities at the local level.

Minigrants can increase local public health capacity to address climate change. Jurisdictions that wish to utilize minigrant mechanisms to promote climate change adaptation and preparedness at the local level may benefit from the experience of the 6 states and 44 local health programs described.

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Florida's 2015 Peril of Flood Act requires that coastal localities incorporate sea level rise (SLR) planning policies into their comprehensive plans. We surveyed planners and reviewed more than 150 plans to determine how communities responded to the state mandate along three domains: planning intelligence, SLR responses, and collaboration. We learned that the mandate spurred SLR planning, but that local SLR planning responses varied widely, ranging from complacent compliance to progressive planning responses. Further research is needed to clarify underlying motivators for these varied responses, as well as connections between policy adoption and implementation.Takeaway for practice: Flexible mandates allow for discretion in how localities respond to complex, ever-changing, long-term, and uncertain phenomena like climate change and SLR. Commitment to addressing these challenges can be bolstered by state mandates that provide political cover and an impetus to move adaptation planning forward. Such flexibility can lead to inconsistent and vague policies. Thus, mandates can spur local policy adoption but cannot ensure substantive responses to climate change. Meaningful responses to climate change adaptation still depend heavily on local commitment, capacity, and competence of planners.

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University–community partnerships have long sought to develop interventions to empower historically marginalized community members. However, there is limited critical attention to tensions faced when community engaged courses support urban planning initiatives in communities of color. This article explores how three Florida State University planning classes sought to engage the predominantly African-American Griffin Heights community in Tallahassee, Florida. Historically, African-American communities have been marginalized from the planning process, undermining community trust and constraining city planning capacity to effectively engage and plan with African-American community members. In this context, there are opportunities for planning departments with relationships in the African-American community to facilitate more extensive community engagement and urban design processes that interface with broader city planning programs. However, mediating relationships between the community and the city within the context of applied planning classes presents unique challenges. Although city planners have increasingly adopted the language of community engagement, many processes remain inflexible, bureaucratic, and under resourced. Reliance on inexperienced students to step in as community bridges may also limit the effectiveness of community engagement. Thus, while community engaged courses create opportunities to facilitate community empowerment, they also at times risk perpetuating the disenfranchisement of African-American community members in city planning processes.

Background Air conditioning usage is the most effective intervention to prevent heat-related illnesses such as heat exhaustion and heatstroke. However, limited geographic coverage and outdated information on air conditioning (AC) availability limit extreme heat risk mapping and prevention efforts. Methods This paper contributes to this research gap by using updated AC availability data to detect areas in Florida, U.S., with significant AC needs and to assess the factors associated with AC ownership. Leveraging property databases, this study first identified Florida, U.S. census tracts by applying Moran’s I and Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) and applied Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) to investigate the relationship between AC ownership and sociodemographic characteristics. Results Clusters of significantly high and low values (p < 0.05) of AC ownership were found across Florida. High-high clusters of AC ownership were found in the northern and eastern coasts, including large metropolitan areas such as Jacksonville, Sarasota, Fort Lauderdale, and Daytona Beach. Clusters with no AC were located in the interior of Florida. We closely looked at AC prevalence clusters in Duval County which contains the city of Jacksonville. Clusters of households with low to no AC availability were found in the urban core, where there is high poverty, poor housing conditions, and low education levels. SDM results showed a significant association between AC ownership and socioeconomic and urbanicity (urban and rural) variables. In particular, we found that a higher proportion of households without an AC are located in predominantly Black or African American neighborhoods, indicating racial disparities in AC ownership. Conclusions Our results can be used to target neighborhoods that are in great need of heat prevention measures. For instance, part of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program offers financial assistance to families with low incomes for energy bills initiated to provide AC units. The result of this study can be used to support this policy. Trial registration Not applicable