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Research finds a link between social vulnerability and urban heat island effect

2023-12-29T11:32:00-05:00

New research from two U.S. universities has drawn a link between socially vulnerable populations and urban heat island effect. The team, drawn from the University of Texas at San Antonio and Pennsylvania State University, used Philadelphia as a case study to summarize how more vulnerable people live in neighborhoods that are “less green and that get hotter.”

The research was recently published in the Journal of Buildings, and examines the differing characteristics of two Philadelphia neighborhoods to study how the way a neighborhood is built, and the characteristics of the people who live there, are both related to how hot it gets. The team found a “clear link between outdoor temperature and specific urban characteristics” before asking “whether these urban characteristics can be related to the social vulnerability of the residents.”

The social vulnerability of different Philadelphia neighborhoods. Image credit: Research team, licensed under CC BY-ND

The group established a social vu...

Research from Northwestern University finds the drastic effects of 'underground climate change' in downtown Chicago

2023-07-18T11:44:00-04:00

“Underground climate change is a silent hazard,” he said. “The ground is deforming as a result of temperature variations, and no existing civil structure or infrastructure is designed to withstand these variations.”

NBC Chicago reports on research from Northwestern University Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Alessandro Rotta Loria and his findings on the effect of density and subterranean heat in the city’s downtown Loop, where temperatures have been shown to be 10 degrees Celsius higher than in Grant Park and another 25 compared to outlying areas.

Loria called the phenomenon “subsurface heat islands.” Chicago’s clay underpinnings are wilting under the change, causing a sink of up to 8 millimeters, or more than four times the 1 to 2mm sink found by researchers in Manhattan recently (Chicago also has a deeper bedrock). Preventative thermal upgrades must be enacted, and mitigating the effort will also require the use of heat recovery technologies, according to the study.

An MIT-born startup is pitching their idea for green roof additions to the Parisian skyline

2023-04-05T16:45:00-04:00

A new startup born out of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning has developed a green roof concept aimed at improving the quality of life of Parisians while addressing a host of environmental and urban health concerns for the ancient city of 2.1 million.

Roofscapes is the brainchild of Master of Architecture students Eytan Levi, Olivier Faber, and Tim Cousin. The trio all hail from France and met while studying as undergraduates at the EPFL Lausanne. Together, they see the concept as a way to “unlock” the potential of the thousands of pitched roof structures throughout Paris that have for centuries gone unused.

“We knew we wanted to have an impact on the built environment that was different than what a lot of architectural firms were doing,” Faber told MIT News for a recent profile of the venture. “We were thinking about a startup, but mostly we came to MIT because we knew we’d have a lot of agency to grow our skills and competency in adapting the built environment to the cli...

Record high temperatures are making European cities look elsewhere for future heat mitigation plans

2022-07-20T15:16:00-04:00

Cities across Europe are scrambling to implement public infrastructure upgrades to combat rising temperatures. As a result, many areas are "melting" under the strain of heatwaves that have already claimed more than 1,900 lives in Spain and Portugal alone. Not to mention the record high temperatures in England this week, where the area reached 40°C (104 F) for the first time.

According to new projections from the United Nations, the effects of heatwaves are expected to continue in frequency until at least the 2060s. As a result, nascent Heat Actions Plans in cities like Paris (where only 35% of Metro cars have air-conditioning) are planning for tests that will likely be further exacerbated by an expected influx of climate refugees from some of the most-affected regions during that same timeframe. As news continues to break, architects and urban designers try to face the worsening impacts of climate change's increasingly moribund demands.

For example, efforts to alleviate the heat is...

Monterrey, Mexico is the latest city to employ a full-time Chief Heat Officer

2022-06-17T14:45:00-04:00

In time for the start of summer, the global fraternity of Chief Heat Officers has grown as cities decide to commit themselves to full-time professionals from the subfield of public design in the face of mounting challenges caused by climate change.

The city of Monterrey, in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, recently announced architect and urban planner Surella Segú as the first-ever head of its new civic office, which is being funded through a partnership with the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock).

Surella Segú. Image courtesy Harvard University.

The 2018 Harvard Loeb Fellow is the principal and co-founder of EL CIELO, an 18-year-old practice with a focus on housing and urban renewal, and the former head of the Urban Development at the country’s Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers.

A graduate of the Columbia University GSAPP and the ITESM, she now holds the fifth official CHO title under the Council's new City Cha...

Athens has hired a new 'Chief Heat Officer' to help the city combat climate change

2021-08-26T16:45:00-04:00

Europe’s summer of natural disasters has included increasingly frequent extreme weather events [...] Ms. Myrivili’s appointment is a recognition of that new reality. But it is also a foreboding sign that having someone to grapple with suffocating temperatures may be a mainstay of the municipal cityscape, as necessary and unremarkable as a transportation, sanitation or police commissioner.

Other cities like Miami have retained administrators with similar titles. Athens is leading the way in terms of a loss of residents who are in large part moving to escape the heat. The country itself is expected to lose 8 million people in the next four years. Myrivili earned a PhD from Columbia University in 2004 and served as Athens' Deputy Mayor for Urban Nature, Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation from 2017 to 2019.

A scorching mid-summer heatwave combined with wildfires has forced the closure of several important cultural sites around the city.

The New York Times has a profile of Athens' newest city administrator here.

Air conditioning the outdoors? Qatar is doing it

2019-10-21T13:50:00-04:00

To survive the summer heat, Qatar not only air-conditions its soccer stadiums, but also the outdoors — in markets, along sidewalks, even at outdoor malls so people can window shop with a cool breeze. “If you turn off air conditioners, it will be unbearable. You cannot function effectively,” says Yousef al-Horr, founder of the Gulf Organization for Research and Development.

Want to see the future of climate change? Take a look at Qatar, where average temperatures have already risen by more than 2-degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial times.

View of the Al Wakrah Sports Club, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Image courtesy of Hufton + Crow.

The Washington Post takes a look at how the country is helping its residents real with the stifling heat as preparations get underway for the 2020 World Cup. The story highlights the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Al Wakrah Stadium, a structure that pumps cooled air across spectators' ankles via stylized grilles.

The report also highlight's the nation's ever-growing collection of indoor malls, outdoor air conditioned zones, and other mechanically cooled spaces.

A fine-grained look at America's urban "heatscapes"

2019-08-13T18:37:00-04:00

As the United States suffers through a summer of record-breaking heat, new research shows that temperatures on a scorching summer day can vary as much as 20 degrees across different parts of the same city, with poor or minority neighborhoods often bearing the brunt of that heat.

Using a series of dramatic, color-coded maps, The New York Times highlights the growing disparity between exactly which neighborhoods in America feel the ever-increasing urban heat island effect. The report details stark temperature differences between the neighborhoods of several major cities, where temperatures can vary by as much as 20-degrees, depending on layout, urban design, and topography.

In Baltimore, for example, temperatures can range from 87-degrees in the city's wealthy suburban districts, where tree-lined streets and yards help to mitigate the heat island effect, to upwards of 101-degrees in the city's working class inner core neighborhoods, where tightly-clustered row houses and surface parking lots amplify the sun's power.

In Portland, Oregon, the temperature discrepancy between the city's leafy, park-adjacent westside and the industrial areas surrounding the airport in the northeast follows a similar trajectory. The city's massive Forest Park produces, according ...

How can cities become "heat-proof" and how does this affect the built environment?

2019-07-02T18:57:00-04:00

On top of climate change, cities grow hotter and hotter due to an increase in urban heat island effect. According to Philip Oldfield's Guardian piece, "What would a heat-proof city look like?," there are four solutions cities can implement to decrease rising temperatures. Oldfield explains green roofs/vertical gardens, reflective roofs, water treatments (ponds, pools, misters), and dynamic shades would aide in mitigating increased temperatures. However, before understanding these solutions, it is essential to point out what causes this rising heat phenomenon.

Built environments worsen summer temperatures thanks to specific design elements and building materials. Asphalt and concrete absorb heat and bounce sun rays back onto street surfaces and surrounding areas. Tall buildings and glass skyscrapers create "urban canyons" which trap heat at ground level. Traffic and automobile dependency also contribute to heat emissions making city streets sizzling p...

How cool can paint really be? UNStudio collaborates with Monopol Colors to develop a paint that helps buildings fight solar radiation and elemental weathering

2019-02-27T20:16:00-05:00

UNStudio is known for their groundbreaking work in solution driven designs relating to the ever-changing urban environment. Climate is changing, which leaves architects and designers taking steps towards designing buildings and structures that can accommodate to the overheated urban environment. Intense heating and other weather conditions like rain and dust generate a lot of stress and strain on the exteriors of many buildings. Thirty to forty years ago, these types of conditions were not necessarily a priority. However, with the environmental conditions of today firms like UNStudio are taking a different approach to future building design. According to the studio's principal and founder Ben van Berkel, "designing with the future in mind also means buildings last longer in the face of environmental change. That they are more resilient to change and they endure environmental strain."

Theatre de Stoep in Spijkenisse, Image courtesy of UNStudio

Beyond the design process, materials play...

Fighting urban heat with cool pavement in Los Angeles

2017-08-21T13:33:00-04:00

It’s known as the “urban heat island effect,” and it refers to the pockets of intense heat captured by the concrete, asphalt, dark roofs and the dearth of foliage that define many American cityscapes. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti wants to reduce the city’s average temperature by 3 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 20 years.

Los Angeles is the first U.S. city to test cool pavement to fight urban heat, coating streets in a special gray paint known as CoolSeal, that can lower the temperature as much as 10 degrees. The officials say that the hope is that cooler streets will lead to cooler neighborhoods, less air conditioning use and fewer heat-related deaths.

Los Angeles is one of the only cities in the nation that experiences heat-related deaths in the winter, a phenomenon expected to worsen alongside temperatures. “Not everyone has the resources to use air conditioning, so there’s concern that some low-income families will suffer,” says Alan Barreca, an environmental science professor at the UCLA. “That bothers me on a moral dimension. The pavement would provide benefits to everyone. “It can protect people who have to be outdoors,” he added.

The coating costs about $40,000 per mile and lasts seven years, officials said. To determine whether CoolSeal is cost-effective and how it influences drivers, Spot...

To pour concrete in mid-summer Phoenix, wait until the moon comes out

2016-06-29T12:59:00-04:00

A team of construction workers is pouring concrete onto the frame of a structure that will eventually become a wastewater treatment plant. It's 1 a.m. on a clear night in the suburbs of Phoenix. The temperature is still in the high 80s. But that's way down from the area's recent record high temperatures, up to 118 degrees. [...] "We try to pour and place and finish concrete when it's below 90 degrees," says Daniel Ward, the construction company's project director.

L.A.'s urban heat island effect accounts for temperatures up to 19 degrees hotter

2015-09-22T17:44:00-04:00

the greater L.A. area sees more additional heat than any other region, in part because of how urbanized it is. [...] Solutions include planting more trees and bushes, painting roofs white so they don’t absorb as much heat and using lighter colored concrete on streets and sidewalks.