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About
This Project

Intent

The goal of this project is to pair qualitative data (community stories and feedback) with quantitative data (temperature, tree canopy, maps) and visually present how climate change impacts our frontline communities in Multnomah County. Too often we see headlines and studies presenting ‘disproportionate’ impacts on Black/brown and low income communities, but that work is often missing the personalization and community involvement of those most impacted – in a vacuum of academia or government. This project aims to show the importance of qualitative data in the form of community stories and how it creates a fuller picture of how communities are impacted by lack of tree canopy, rising temperatures, and the resources needed.

Why is this important?

Almost 100 people died in Oregon as a result of the unprecedented 2021 heat dome, when temperatures reached a record-breaking 116 degrees.

Read Multnomah County’s report (PDF).

Tree canopy is dwindling in Oregon and decreasing over time (30% in 2020), which prevents natural cooling during hot temperatures. Increased pavement and development leads to hotter temperatures felt – some concrete was over 20 degrees hotter than the atmospheric temperature.

Read the City of Portland’s Tree Report (PDF)

Frontline (Black/brown & low income) communities face the first and worst impacts of climate change globally. In Portland, it is also a cumulative impact from the displacement and historical impact of redlining in Portland.

Full study

Methodology

Community Stories – Environmental Indicator Survey

With collaboration with the Coalitions of Communities of Color, the project team sent out a survey to community networks for responses (first 100 complete responses received $50 gift cards) to Environmental Justice (EJ) Indicator questions. The first four questions on heat, heat responses, trees, and resources needed are presented in this project. Additional questions on EJ indicators were asked, which will be part of an expanded project outside of ‘Canopy of Stories.’ Outreach was intentional to Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) community members and community based organizations (CBO’s) who serve their communities. Survey data is ongoing. Outreach flyers were initially made in English and then translated into: Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Somali for accessibility.

Complete questions asked here:

1

Heat

How do extreme temperatures, like the heatwave in the summer of 2020 or the ice storm in the winter of 2021, impact you, your household and community?
2

Heat Responses

Thinking about extreme heat, how do you stay comfortable in your home during the summer?
3

Trees

What are things (e.g., trees providing shade, water fountains, public pools, shade spots, cooling centers) in your neighborhood that help you stay cool in the summer, and how have these things changed over the years (e.g., less trees to provide shade)?
4

Resources Needed

What supports (e.g. energy assistance programs, cooling and heating technology, transportation to cooling centers) would benefit you and your neighborhood during extreme heat or cold? What supports have helped in the past?

Quantitative Data Sets:

  • Tree Canopy Data from Portland Parks Urban Forestry – Street Trees and Park Trees (2016)
  • Urban Heat Index Data from Metro (2016)
  • Neighborhood Boundaries in Multnomah County

What is Missing?

As the survey was distributed, responses made it clear that on top of a lack of available resources and impacts of COVID-19 for accessibility to cooling shelters, that additional pressures in Portland related to housing insecurity, were a stresser for Multnomah County Residents. Antagonistic responses regarding the houseless community were removed from this project’s presentation. Future work should include additional outreach for BIPOC Houseless Community and how lack of tree canopy affects livability with climate change’s impacts.

Responses that were less than 5 words were removed from this project.

Responses outside of Multnomah County and geocoded as outside of Oregon were removed from this project.