Page 47 - Mapping the Nation: Taking Climate Action

more concerning as COVID-19 afflicts these vulnerable neighborhoods with higher rates of death than historically favored neighborhoods. With climate change expected to exacerbate heat islands and health threats, Los Angeles leaders, community groups, and educators are teaming up to address urban tree cover with a sense of urgency. Planting more trees can help lower pollution, temperatures, stress levels, and energy bills of residents. Trees also improve aesthetics, clean the air and water, and even increase business revenue, while alleviating mental health concerns. To effect real change quickly, a partnership between the City of LA; California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA); and local nonprofit organizations is using data and geography to maximize impact. Geospatial Data to Advance Equity As the largest city in California and home to nearly four million people, LA has a lot of data. Making that data useful is difficult, especially when information is trapped in spreadsheets and siloed by individual city departments. In 2016, Mayor Eric Garcetti launched a central online location to bring all city data together, with the goal of making better decisions. Dubbed the Los Angeles GeoHub, it combines information from many sources, from fire departments to utilities to school districts. The LA GeoHub is built with ArcGIS® Hub, a platform that facilitates community engagement around data and initiatives. Covering a broad spectrum of information from around the city, the data is open and accessible for anyone to use, map, and explore. Visualizing and mapping city data can help residents better understand their city and assist leaders in making improvements. Alfredo Estrada, a Cal State LA student intern in Los Angeles who is learning how to use data to solve equity issues, explains: "I was addressing an environmental issue, working in \[Microsoft\] Excel making graphs, and I really liked how my graphs looked. But as soon as I started working on the map, everything kind of popped. As evident as the issue already was to me because I curated the data and graphed it, it's just volumes more evident when you put it on a map." Helping Nonprofit Organizations Do Their Work Nonprofit organizations are already hard at work in Los Angeles, laboring to address inequities. They often confront challenges such as low staffing, tight budgets, and not enough hours in the day. For these committed changemakers, efficiency is necessary. Though data is one of the best assets of nonprofit organizations, often they don't have the time, budget, or capacity to make use of it. "Many nonprofit organizations may not have the infrastructure of having a research and development team," said Preston Mills, community data manager for the City of LA. "They may not have the capacity to take a step away from, for example, providing meals to their unhoused constituents to do an analysis of that work, because the work itself necessitates a level of detail and intentionality." Therefore a partnership with academia, business, and government is essential. Nonprofit organizations need access to data, such as what's available in Los Angeles GeoHub, and also help from people who know how to use it. Planting Seeds in Academia In 2018, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $1 million grant to Cal State LA, funding a three-year collaboration with the City of Los Angeles to train students in big data and help nonprofit organizations use geographic data. Students are trained in using GIS to apply data to solve problems in the community. Along with basic data science and GIS training, students also learn to use Los Angeles GeoHub. Mills was hired to support Cal State LA scholars, faculty, and graduate students, helping with training and assistance. In classes on GIS and data science, he observed students 46 Extreme Heat