Most people may walk past a parking lot without giving it a second thought, but in Santa Fe, these lots are quietly trying to reshape the climate of the neighborhoods around them. This short documentary follows watershed hydrologist Aaron Kauffman and permaculture designer Reece Baker as they use a thermometer to show the heat island effect happening within our cities. As cities across the Southwest have leaned into water-saving landscaping like xeriscaping and artificial turf, they have traded one problem for another, swapping water use for rising surface temperatures. This video discusses how we can take the stormwater that is currently running off our streets and rooftops, and put it to work in cooling our cities and building a more resilient neighborhood one rain garden at a time.
Green Infrastructure Resources:
- GSI Guidebook (Santa Fe County): https://www.santafecountynm.gov/uploa…
- Urban Heat Island Map Dataset from the Trust for Public Land; published December 2025, retrieved on July 31, 2026: https://tpl.maps.arcgis.com/home/item…
- RainCatcher Inc.: https://theraincatcherinc.com
- Southwest Urban Hydrology: https://www.southwesturbanhydrology.com