Title: The City as a Laboratory for Exploring Heat Mitigation Strategies
Presented by: Dr. David Sailor
Date: April 2, 2021 (12:00 - 13:00 EST)
Registration: HERE
Abstract of Presentation:
Cities are warming at an alarming rate, in part due to global climate change, and in part due to local warming effects of urbanization. For example, over the last 60 years the summer nighttime minimum temperatures in Phoenix Arizona have increased by 5 degrees Celsius. Similar warming trends are evident throughout the Desert Southwest, prompting local governments to initiate or expand efforts to mitigate excess urban heat.
There are a variety of existing strategies as well as recent innovations in technologies that hold promise for cooling cities. However, local governments are often slow to adopt such innovations due to inertia in decision-making processes as well as a lack of independent data and analysis to help assess the costs, benefits, and potential unintended consequences. The Urban Climate Research Center at ASU is partnering with local governments to evaluate innovations in urban cooling through pilot projects. By doing so, we hope to accelerate adoption and optimization of urban cooling strategies.
This presentation will highlight three such projects. The first focuses on a large-scale redevelopment of a distressed neighborhood in which we use microscale climate modeling to estimate the thermal impacts of the planned redevelopment. The second project involves extensive field measurements to evaluate the surface and air temperature cooling potential of a highly reflective cool seal paving product being piloted in eight neighborhoods. The final project investigates an innovative radiative cooling film for application on urban surfaces. The initial test focuses on a small set of bus shelters as a proof of concept. Pending positive results, the project may expand to include the application of the film on bus roof surfaces and other structures throughout the city.
Bio: David Sailor is a Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning at Arizona State University. He also directs the Urban Climate Research Center, where he coordinates large-scale, interdisciplinary teams working on complex challenges in the urban climate system. His own scholarly agenda focuses on the intersection of climate with the built environment. This includes the investigation of feedback mechanisms between the built environment and climate with a focus on building energy consumption and renewable energy resources as well as both indoor and outdoor thermal comfort and air quality. He has worked extensively on quantifying the causes and prospects for mitigating the urban heat island effect, including the investigation of innovative materials and technologies integrated into building designs and urban infrastructure.
