Ladd Keith

Ladd Keith, Ph.D., is a climate planner whose research focuses on heat planning, policy, and governance, helping communities, regions, and nations build heat resilience. He argues that our cities were built for a climate that no longer exists, and that we are living through a "heatshed moment" — a turning point at which extreme heat, already the deadliest weather hazard in the United States, must be addressed as urgently as any other climate risk.

He defined heat governance in a Nature comment, and co-authored Planning for Urban Heat Resilience, the American Planning Association’s first guidebook on heat for planning practitioners.

He has led and co-led heat research programs funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, NOAA, and the CDC, including the Center for Heat Resilient Communities and the Southwest Urban Corridor Integrated Field Laboratory. Internationally, he serves on the management committee of the Global Heat Health Information Network, a joint initiative of the World Health Organization and the World Meteorological Organization.

At the University of Arizona, he founded the Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Built Environments and later expanded it fully online and at a campus in Peru. He served a full term on the City of Tucson's Planning Commission, where he chaired the development and adoption of the city's comprehensive plan. In 2025, he was named Western Planner of the Year and a University of Arizona Distinguished Scholar, and in 2026 received the inaugural University of Arizona Convergence Award for Excellence in Applied Research and Engineering.

A frequent commentator on extreme heat for national and international media, he delivered the TEDx talk “A Heatshed Moment for Communities in Crisis.” He writes Heatshed, a newsletter on how we plan for and govern extreme heat.

Selected Interviews

• America Adapts: The Climate Change Podcast. “Extreme Heat: The Deadliest Climate Hazard Is Also the Most Invisible with Dr. Ladd Keith.” July 20, 2026.
• BBC News. “What this desert city can teach the world about tackling heat deaths.” July 17, 2026.
• CNN International. “Tackling Europe's Heat Wave Infrastructure Challenges.” June 24, 2026.

Journal Article Publications

• Sobhaninia, Saeideh, Sara Meerow, Ladd Keith, Alekzander E. Ryan, and Aaron Bouschor. (Accepted, in press). An international assessment of heat action plans. npj Climate Action.
• Avila, Ashley, Nicole Iroz-Elardo, Kristina M. Currans, and Ladd Keith. (2026). A pilot study exploring the effect of vehicular waste heat on personal heat exposure. PLOS Climate. 5(8): e0000824. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000824
• Roy, Malini, Ladd Keith, Sara Meerow, Saeideh Sobhaninia, and Shaylynn Trego. (2026). Assessing heat resilience coordination in networks of plans. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.  https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2026.2691905
• Keith, Ladd, Sara Meerow, Malini Roy, Shaylynn Trego, and Saida Sobhaninia. (2026). Integrating three plan evaluation approaches for coordinated heat resilience in cities across the Arizona urban corridor. Urban Climate. 67(2026), 102964. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2026.102964
• Keith, Ladd and Sara Meerow. (2026). Our “heatshed” moment is now. Journal of Urban Affairs. 48(7), 2373-2379.  https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2025.2526490
• Brown, Heidi E., Erika Austhof, Daniel Ferguson, and Ladd Keith. (2026). Role of public health in wildfire: Lessons from the field. EcoHealth. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-026-01784-8
• Currans, Kristina M., Ladd Keith, Nicole Iroz-Elardo, Ashley Avila, and Brenden J. Little. (2026). Evaluating the impacts of cool pavement on pedestrian-level heat stress indicators. 3, 31. Discover Cities. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44327-026-00211-5
• Lim, Chris Chaeha, Jonathan A. Race, Parneet Kaur, Honghyok Kim, Ran Wei, Xiaojiang Li, Ladd Keith, Lynn B. Gerald, Brian Drummond, Noah M. Tolby, and N. Clay Mann. (2026). Trends and Disparities in Heat-Related Emergency Medical Services Activations. Journal of the American Medical Association. 335(9), 818-820. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2025.26586
• Boyer, Anne-Lise, Minwoo Ahn, Ladd Keith, and Heidi E. Brown. (2026). Striving for Rural Heat Resilience: A systematic literature review. Weather, Climate, and Society. 18(1), 17-31. https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-25-0047.1
• Archie, Kelli M., Daniella Hirschfeld, Sara Meerow, James C. Arnott, Ladd Keith, Julie A. Vano, and Emilio Mateo. (2025). Too hot to handle: Assessing practitioner climate service needs to advance heat resilience. Climate Services. 40(2025), 100606. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cliser.2025.100606
• Jensen, Lauren*, Ladd Keith, Sara Meerow, Philip Berke, Erika Schmidt*, and Shaylynn Trego*. (2025). Planning to Mitigate Heat in Vulnerable Neighborhoods: Applying the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard™ for Heat in Two Boston Neighborhoods. Journal of Urban Affairs. 48(7), 2248–2270. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2025.2526494
• Leyba, Bryan, Sara Meerow, Alexandra Busch, Doris Damyanovic, and Ladd Keith. (2025). Planning for Heat Resilience in Increasingly Vulnerable Cities: A Case Study of Vienna, Austria. Sustainable Cities and Societies. 131(2025), 106683. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2025.106683
• Trego, Shaylynn, Sara Meerow, Ladd Keith, and David M. Hondula. (2025). Heat mitigation and management in the City of Phoenix, AZ: A case study of America’s hottest large city. Journal of Urban Affairs. 48(7), 2222–2233. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2025.2511021
• Sobhaninia, Saeideh, Sara Meerow, Ladd Keith, Malini Roy, Shaylynn Trego, and Melina Matos. (2025). “A comparison of plan integration for flood and heat resilience: A case study of Baltimore, Maryland.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. 127(2025), 105638.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105638
• Ahn, Minwoo, Heidi E. Brown, and Ladd Keith. (2025). Rural heat health disparities: Evidence from the U.S. National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS). The Journal of Climate Change and Health. 22(2025), 100432. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2025.100432
• Watkins, Lance, Heidi E. Brown, Ladd Keith, Erika Austhof, Hsini Lin Cox, Samuel N. Chambers, Joseph Tabor, Aaron Gettel, and Melissa Guardaro. (2024). A co-produced workflow for addressing inequities in cooling center access. Community Science. 3(4), e2023CSJ000038. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023CSJ000038
• Roy, Malini, Ladd Keith, Mona Arora, Fatima Luna, and Julie Robinson. (2024). Coproducing Opportunities to Advance Extreme Heat Resilience in Southern Arizona. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 105(11), E2070-E2077. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-24-0216.1
• Amaripadath, Deepak, Alamin Molla, Ladd Keith, and David J. Sailor. (2024). Multi-criteria decision support framework for outdoor heat stress management in urban environments in changing climates. Sustainable Cities and Society. 114(1), 105799. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2024.105799
• Meerow, Sara and Ladd Keith. (2024). Cities at the Forefront of Emerging U.S. Heat Governance. One Earth. 7(8), 1330-1334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.07.013
• Meerow, Sara, Ladd Keith, Malini Roy, and Shaylynn Trego. (2024). Plan evaluation for heat resilience: Complementary methods to comprehensively assess heat planning in Tempe and Tucson, Arizona. Environmental Research Letters. 19(8), 084050. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5d05
• Iuliano, Joseph E. and Ladd Keith. (2024). Shifting Gears: A case study of bicycle planning and decision-making in Tucson, Arizona. Active Travel Studies. 4(1). https://doi.org/10.16997/ats.1506
• Keith, Ladd, Sara Meerow, Lauren Jensen, Shaylynn Trego, Erika Schmidt, and Philip Berke. (2023). Evaluating urban heat mitigation across networks of plans. Journal of Planning Education and Research. 45(2), 427-440. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X231215780
• Trego, Shaylynn, Sara Meerow, and Ladd Keith. (2023). Heat planning in small and medium-sized cities: A Collaborative application of PIRS™ for Heat in Kent, WA, USA. Socio-Ecological Practice Research. (5)4, 409-422. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-023-00166-6
• Keith, Ladd, C.J. Gabbe, and Erika Schmidt. (2023). Urban Heat Governance: Examining the Role of Urban Planning. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning. 25(5), 642-662. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2023.2244446
• Chambers, Samuel N., Heidi E. Brown, Ladd Keith, and Erika Austhof. (2023). Development of a Geographic Human Heat Balance Equation to Support Public Health Analyses: An Arizona Urban Sun Corridor application. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment. 32(2023), 101009. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsase.2023.101009
• Chambers, Samuel N., Geoffrey A. Boyce, Daniel E. Martinez, Coen Bongers, and Ladd Keith. (2023). The contribution of physical exertion to heat-related illness and death in the Arizona borderlands. Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology. 46(2023), 100590. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sste.2023.100590
• Sami, Ida and Ladd Keith. (2023). How do streetcar transit users and streetcar decision-makers perceive heat risk? Journal of Public Transportation. 25(2023), 100045. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubtr.2023.100045
• Hughes, Halley B., David D. Breshears, Kimberly J. Cook, Ladd Keith, and Joseph R. Burger. (2023). Household energy use response to extreme heat evaluated with a biophysical model of temperature regulation: An Arizona case study. PLOS Climate. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000110
• Crisman, Jonathan Jae-An, Ladd Keith, Ida Sami, and Gregg M. Garfin. (2023) Designing Chill City: An interactive game supporting public learning about urban planning for extreme heat. The Journal of Environmental Education. 54(3), 225-239. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2023.2183173
• Iuliano, Joseph E. and Ladd Keith. (2022). Near Misses and Split Routes: Comparing Rider Behavior, Driver Interaction, and Route Choice for Cyclists. Journal of Transportation Safety & Security. 15(11), 1148-1171. https://doi.org/10.1080/19439962.2022.2155745
• Brown, Heidi E., Ladd Keith, Valerie Madera-Garcia*, Anissa Taylor, Nicholas M. Ramirez, and Irene Ogata. (2022). Greening up for mosquitoes: A comparison of green stormwater infrastructure in a semi-arid region. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association. 38(2), 109-112. https://doi.org/10.2987/21-7055
• Meerow, Sara and Ladd Keith. (2022). Planning for extreme heat: A national survey of U.S. planners. Journal of the American Planning Association. 88(3), 319-334. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2021.1977682
• Keith, Ladd, Sara Meerow, David M. Hondula, V. Kelly Turner, and James C. Arnott. (2021). Deploy heat officers, policies and metrics. Nature. 598(7879), 29-31. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02677-2
• Keith, Ladd, Nicole Iroz-Elardo, Erika Austhof, Ida Sami, and Mona Arora. (2021). Extreme Heat at Outdoor COVID-19 Vaccination Sites. Journal of Climate Change and Health. 4(2021), 100043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2021.100043
• Keith, Ladd, Sara Meerow, and Tess Wagner. (2020). Planning for extreme heat: A review. Journal of Extreme Events. 6(3&4), 2050003. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/S2345737620500037
• Austhof, Erika, Vjollca Berisha, Ben McMahan, Gigi Owen, Ladd Keith, Matthew Roach, and Heidi E. Brown. (2020). Participation and Engagement of Public Health Stakeholders in Climate and Health Adaptation. Atmosphere, 11(3), 265. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11030265