UNH Sustainability Fellowship: Town of Groton, Connecticut Planning for Extreme Heat

Groton, Connecticut  

Groton is a coastal town located in southeastern Connecticut. The town government was established in 1705 to provide public services to the town’s residents, which today number approximately 40,000, and its business community. The Town is governed by a mayor and town council and is assisted by numerous boards and commissions. Town staff work across 12 departments; this fellowship opportunity will be hosted by the Town’s Office of Planning and Development Services (OPDS). The OPDS mission is to guide development through the sound and orderly use of land and the conservation of energy and resources; to promote the economic well-being of the community; and to ensure the safe occupation of buildings, structures, and uses. The 17 OPDS staff are organized into four divisions: planning, inspection services, resiliency and sustainability, and economic and community development. The resiliency and sustainability division is new as of 2022 and currently has one member, a Sustainability and Resilience Manager hired in August who will be the fellow’s primary mentor. Given that the fellow will be brought on during the first year of the division’s existence, they will have the opportunity to help shape the division’s direction in an impactful way.  

The impacts of extreme heat as a consequence of climate change are devastating, with heat out-ranking flooding as the deadliest weather-related hazard per the EPA. Understanding and addressing extreme heat is very complex, as it can cause myriad impacts to infrastructure, the environment, and people’s mental and physical health. Heat, like many other climate change impacts, disproportionately burdens people who are socioeconomically vulnerable. Fortunately, there are many interventions that can be pursued, and education about the risk of heat is on the rise. Thanks to resources like www.heat.gov, local initiatives like Columbia, MO’s “Show me the Heat” campaign, and programs being conducted both within the U.S. and abroad to name and rank heat events, there is a growing movement to share information on heat impacts and how they can be ameliorated. 

The main objective of this fellowship is to help the Town of Groton better understand its heat vulnerability now and in the future and how to reduce it. The fellow will research the state of the science on extreme heat and investigate they ways in which it could affect Groton’s neighborhoods and communities. The fellow will learn about actions being taken by other cities and towns to reduce heat impacts and brainstorm ways in which the residents and the Town can increase its heat resilience. The inequities of heat burden will be a key consideration throughout the fellowship. The Town of Groton has a long history of climate planning, but to date those efforts have largely focused on building resilience to flooding and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, the work performed during this fellowship will add a new perspective to Groton’s climate resilience and help educate the public about heat risk.  

This fellowship will have several core components. The fellow will start the summer by researching the anticipated increases in heat to be experienced in Groton due to climate change. They will then investigate how the Town’s built infrastructure, local ecology, and community members are vulnerable to extreme heat. This work will include an analysis of how socioeconomic factors influence how people are affected. The fellow will then apply their understanding of the impacts and vulnerabilities to the identification of strategies the Town could implement to reduce heat risk. The Fellow will work with Town staff to prioritize the strategies and will pursue the development of at least one of them to help the Town bridge the gap from planning to implementation. The Town will strive to make this a dynamic fellowship experience, and will also involve the fellow in other climate-focused initiatives and projects being pursued as time and interest allow. 

The fellow will share the results of the background research, vulnerability assessment, and identification of priority actions in a brief report or white paper. We would also like them to develop and deliver a presentation to share the results with local communities. Outcomes for the development of a priority action(s) will be determined based on the work performed, but may include additional presentation materials, website content, and program descriptions. 

We look forward to working with the fellow to help them develop a range of skills and participate in a variety of experiences over the course of the summer. They will become the office expert on heat impacts, and have the opportunity to think through the challenges of planning for heat in a holistic way that includes research, communication, and application. The fellow will learn first-hand about working within a local government and will leave with an understanding of how local governments are structured, how key operations function, and how different departments collaborate on complex projects. Throughout the summer the fellow will make connections with staff from across OPDS as well as other departments. We will also introduce the fellow to subject matter experts at partnering organizations that work on heat and related topics, such as colleagues at UCONN, Ledge Light Health District, and non-profit organizations, which will help build the fellow’s network. We would also like the fellow to work with us on public engagement around the topic of heat as well as other climate change impacts, which would provide experience in developing and implementing communications strategies.  

Because the topic of heat has not been a focus of previous Town climate planning efforts, the work to be performed by the fellow will have a significant impact in informing the Town and community. The Sustainability and Resilience Manager is pursuing grant funding that, if awarded, would support the development of the Town’s first climate action plan. The outcomes of this fellowship will directly inform the heat portion of that plan, creating a pathway for the fellow’s work to make a significant contribution to the Town’s future climate action.  

Town of Groton

134 Groton Long Point Road

Groton, CT 06340 

Work will be performed onsite or hybrid – partially in-person/partially remote 

Megan Granato, Sustainability and Resilience Manager

Jon Reiner, OPDS Director