Patterns and Drivers of Intra-Urban Heat and Pollution Island Interactions

This project investigates the spatial and temporal variation of urban heat and urban pollution interactions at the geographic scale of neighborhoods. Urban Heat Islands (UHI) and Urban Pollution Islands (UPI) are a well-documented phenomena where the ambient temperature and pollution are dis-proportionally high as compared to non-urban areas. This poses a critical health and environmental risk to more than half of the world’s population. Until now these two environmental hazards have been studied independently and at the larger geographic scale of cities, therefore little is known about how they interact to affect heat and air quality for inter-urban residents. This multidisciplinary research will develop geographical methods that will transform knowledge about the patterns and drivers of intra-urban Heat Island and Pollution Island interactions. The project’s educational activities will broaden participation of undergraduate women and military veterans in STEM sciences and will strengthen scientific data literacy in K-12 and college classrooms by developing curricular materials on environmental risks. Using a mixed methods approach, this project couples a dense network of fine-scale ground measurements of air temperature and air particulates collected via citizen scientists, with large-scale remotely sensed data of land surface temperature and aerosols. These data will be analyzed to determine when and where urban heat islands and urban pollution islands occur, and the risks that their interaction poses to urban residents. These results will support informed decision-making for urban heat and air pollution mitigation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.