(gentle music)
-: Salvador Linquist,
third year landscape architecture students had it made
in the shade this semester.
Linquist Studio collaborated
with the city of Omaha and the University
of Nebraska Medical Center to create a heat action plan.
-: So, the problem we're trying to address is
that extreme heat is the leading cause
of disaster related deaths in the United States.
The challenge is that the problem is going to continue
to get worse over time with climate change.
And so, as cities continue to heat up,
there needs to be some sort
of response to mitigating that heat in some way.
-: Some of the big things that make a city hot is the amount
of like hard surfaces that you have.
So, where there's a lot of asphalt in concrete
that stuff kind of absorbs the heat
and retains it in the area a lot more.
But then some things that can help to cool it down
are things like green space
or trees that provide a lot of shade.
Kevin: Students examined literal hotspots in Omaha.
They collaborated with city planners, policy makers
and community members to start thinking
about access to shade, urban vegetation and cool spaces
and to update municipal codes
and influence the design of future buildings and landscapes.
-: So, the long-term goals for this project
and for the Omaha community really has to do with thinking
about shade and access to shade and cooler environments
as a civic resource that belongs to everybody.
It's a health concern.
And so, by codifying some
of the things that come out of our speculative projects,
we can start to have a conversation
about what it means to have access to this crucial resource.