Examining the Spatial Proximity of Vulnerable Communities to Cooling Centers across the Texas Triangle Megaregion

Abstract A cool environment is critical for protecting vulnerable populations from the adverse health effects associated with exposure to extreme heat. Although cooling centers are commonly established to provide temporary heat relief to the public, there is limited research exploring the spatial distributions and accessibility of cooling centers across cities in Texas. The intent of this study was to examine the spatial characteristics of cooling center locations throughout the Texas Triangle megaregion and evaluate the proximity of cooling centers to vulnerable populations. Specifically, spatial clustering analysis was used to quantitatively characterize the spatial distributions of cooling centers in San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas while spatial lag regression was conducted to evaluate the relationships between indicators of socioeconomic vulnerability and proximity to cooling centers. The findings indicated that cooling centers exhibited clustering at short distances, which suggested there were potential spatial redundancies. The distributions of the cooling centers also illustrated possible accessibility issues due to the concentration of the locations in urban cores. The spatial lag regression models highlighted several problematic relationships, as elderly and disabled populations were located at significantly greater distances from cooling centers in San Antonio and Dallas, respectively. However, numerous insignificant relationships were also observed, which suggested that cooling center locations did not consistently marginalize or favor vulnerable populations. Therefore, a higher degree of intentionality that explicitly considers cooling center proximity to the vulnerable populations they aim to serve might be beneficial as planners and emergency managers select cooling center locations in response to extreme heat.