This project examines how residents and community council leaders in Salt Lake City perceive the relationship between green space and extreme heat, with particular attention to differences between the East and West sides of the city. Understanding local perspectives is critical for policy because the effectiveness of heat-mitigation strategies depends not only on physical interventions, such as planting trees or creating parks, but also on community engagement, trust, and local buy-in. Residents' experiences, priorities, and concerns (ranging from water use and maintenance burdens to safety and potential displacement) can strongly influence whether policies achieve their intended cooling benefits. Similarly, community leaders' insights into governance and program implementation are essential for designing feasible, politically supported strategies.

Salt Lake City is a critical case because of stark differences in both green space access and heat exposure. The wealthier East side has greater tree canopy and lower vulnerability to extreme heat, whereas the lower-income West side faces higher heat exposure and fewer cooling resources. By conducting interviews with residents and community council leaders on both sides of the city, this project will document how people understand and prioritize green space as a tool for mitigating heat, what tradeoffs they consider, and how local histories of investment and disinvestment shape perceptions. These insights will provide policymakers with actionable information to design context-sensitive heat-mitigation initiatives, ensuring that interventions reach the communities that need them most while addressing practical and social barriers to implementation.

Undergraduate students at the University of Utah will be fully engaged in several phases of the research process, gaining hands-on experience with qualitative methods and community-based research. During the fieldwork stage, students will play an active role in recruiting participants, scheduling and conducting interviews with both community council leaders and residents, and taking detailed field notes. They will be trained to conduct interviews, including asking probing questions, maintain confidentiality, and build rapport with participants. Students who speak Spanish fluently are particularly well-suited for this project, as that is the main language spoken by several West side residents.

Beyond data collection, students will contribute to the analysis of qualitative data. This will include coding using software such as taguette and identifying emergent themes related to mechanisms of cooling, governance challenges, and differences in capacity between the two sides of the city. Students will collaborate in team coding sessions, learning how to develop and refine a codebook.

Finally, students will have opportunities to participate in dissemination. They will help prepare policy briefs and presentations to community partners and city staff. Depending on their interest and commitment, students may co-author academic manuscripts. By the end of the project, they will have gained significant experience in community-engaged qualitative research that can help improve quality of life. This immersive role will provide practical skills, mentorship, and a sense of ownership over a project with direct relevance to their city and communities.

Undergraduate students will gain substantive knowledge on green space and heat mitigation, as well as research methods and professional skills. Substantively, they will learn about urban planning, resilience to extreme weather, and the role of green space in mitigating extreme heat. They will understand how these issues intersect with governance, and how residents' experiences can inform policy.

Methodologically, students will develop proficiency in qualitative research. They will learn how to conduct interviews, including recruiting participants, and apply systematic coding and thematic analysis. They will also gain experience in team-based research collaboration. Exposure to research software, coding protocols, and interdisciplinary scholarship will prepare them for both graduate study and applied work.

Professionally, students will practice communication across audiences, learning how to translate research findings for policymakers, community partners, and academic venues. By co-authoring outputs such as policy briefs, they will build confidence in presenting scholarly work to professional audiences. Importantly, they will gain experience in community-engaged research, including how to build trust, practice ethical research conduct, and navigate topics such as local capacity and extreme weather.

This experience will give students a competitive edge for graduate school in fields like urban planning, environmental studies, or public health, as well as careers in local government or nonprofit organizations. More broadly, it will provide transferable skills in research design, critical thinking, and community-centered practice that are valuable across professional pathways.