This research seeks to extend an existing urban modeling interface (Umi) developed at MIT to provide urban planners (in private practice or in government agencies) with evidence-based assessments of measures intended to mitigate life-threatening extreme heat events. These events are increasingly common, are made more severe by a combination of regional climate change and the urban heat island effect, disproportionately impact low- and middle-income urban inhabitants and are exacerbated by lack of access to space cooling and interrupted supply of needed electricity.
The research will assess the performance of base-case buildings and urban form under current and midcentury- projected heat waves; assess the technical effectiveness and cost of single measures intended to mitigate the impact of urban heat waves; and assess the impact of integrated approaches (urban form, building and urban technologies, inhabitant behavior), with particular attention to heat-vulnerable populations.
Funding for this research was provided by the Dar Group Urban Seed Grant Program at the Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
![Solar exposure analysis [Credit: Christoph Reinhart]](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/project-images/Screen%20Shot%202020-01-13%20at%209.35.19%20AM.png?itok=jQ1UdbcE)
