Urban Heat Dynamics

Urban areas often experience significantly higher temperatures than their surrounding rural environments, a phenomenon known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Roads, buildings, and other impervious surfaces absorb, store, and re-radiate solar energy more efficiently than natural landscapes, while limited vegetation and reduced airflow further intensify urban heat exposure. As cities continue to grow, elevated temperatures can increase energy demand, reduce outdoor comfort, and impact public health and infrastructure performance.

Our research focuses on understanding, modeling, and mitigating urban heat through integrated field observations, advanced simulations, and AI-driven analysis. We deploy dense sensor networks and conduct field campaigns to measure air temperature, surface temperature, humidity, solar radiation, and wind conditions across urban environments. Using these observations together with high-resolution computational modeling, our work quantifies how vegetation, shading, urban geometry, and surface materials influence heat exposure from pedestrian to neighborhood and city scales.

A major focus of our research is evaluating the cooling benefits of urban vegetation and green infrastructure. We quantify reductions in air and surface temperatures associated with trees, parks, green roofs, and other mitigation strategies, while also assessing their broader costs, benefits, and long-term effectiveness for creating more resilient and sustainable cities.