“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
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.
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