Extreme heat is a growing concern for cities, with both climate change and the urban heat island (UHI) effect increasingly impacting public health, economies, urban infrastructure, and urban ecology. To better understand the current state of planning for extreme heat, we conducted a systematic literature review. We found that most of the research focuses on UHI mapping and modeling, while few studies delve into extreme heat planning and governance processes. An in-depth review of this literature reveals common institutional, policy, and informational barriers and strategies for overcoming them. Identified challenges include siloed heat governance and research that limit cross-governmental and interdisciplinary collaboration; complex, context-specific, and diverse heat resilience strategies; the need to combine extreme heat “risk management” strategies (focused on preparing and responding to extreme heat events) and “design of the built environment” strategies (spatial planning and design interventions that intentionally reduce urban temperatures); and the need for extensive, multidisciplinary data and tools that are often not readily available. These challenges point to several avenues for future heat planning research. Ultimately, we argue that planners have an important role to play in building heat resilience and conclude by identifying areas where scholars and practitioners can work together to advance our understanding of extreme heat planning.

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Stakeholder participation at the intersection of climate and health is essential to assess and plan for the human health impacts of current and projected climate-sensitive hazards. Using the Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) Coalition on Climate Change and Public Health workgroup and the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) program as examples, this paper describes the important role of scientist–public health stakeholder collaboratives in addressing the public health impacts of climate-sensitive hazards. Using the MCDPH and CLIMAS stakeholder groups, stakeholder connections were mapped to show relationships between the organization types and connections between scientists and public health stakeholders. Stakeholders, defined as meeting attendees, were primarily individuals from academic institutions (n = 175), government agencies (n = 114), non-profits (n = 90), and health departments (n = 85). Engaging public health stakeholders in transdisciplinary regional climate initiatives and addressing gaps in their networks helped these programs to develop more collaborative projects over time.