Three and a half billion people currently live in cities, and this is projected to rise to six billion by 2050. In much of the world, cities are warming at twice the rate of rural areas and the frequency of urban heat waves is expected to increase with climate change throughout the 21st century. Addressing the economic, environmental and human costs of urban heat islands requires a better understanding of these complex systems from many disciplinary perspectives. The goal of this four-year Urban Heat Island Network is to advance multidisciplinary understanding of urban heat islands, examine how they can be ameliorated through engineering and design practices, and share these new insights with a wide array of stakeholders responsible for managing urban warming so that the health, economic, and environmental impacts can be reduced.
The Urban Heat Island Network will involve atmospheric scientists, engineers, architects, landscape designers, urban planners, public health, and education and outreach experts, who will share information, evaluate research directions, and communicate knowledge and research recommendations to the larger research community as well as to stakeholders engaged in developing strategies to mitigate the effects of urban warming. The Network will bring together institutions that are already engaged in urban heat island research but have not previously had opportunities to interact with one another on this subject. The University of Minnesota is conducting a novel analysis of 100 urban heat islands around the globe. Georgia Tech is a leader in understanding the contributions of urbanization to climate change. The University of Georgia is advancing knowledge of the interactions between urbanization and precipitation. The UK Met Office is designing models to simulate the impact of urban heat islands on the regional and global climate. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab?s Heat Island Group is at the forefront of advanced materials and building design to reduce urban warming. PositivEnergy is a leader in practical heat island mitigation and building energy conservation. The Minnesota Department of Health is evaluating public health impacts of climate change, including urban heat islands. Collaboration with the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) ensures that the Network reaches audiences in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington, DC.
Planned activities of the Urban Heat Island Network include holding annual summer institutes in the Twin Cities and Atlanta metropolitan areas to advance the collaborative science of urban heat islands; partnering with the Science Museum of Minnesota to engage large public audiences; infusing the work of the Network into the Franklin Institute's Urban Climate Education Partnership (UCEP); and integrating a team of underserved Twin Cities youth into the Network's work. Evaluation of Urban Heat Island Network dynamics and activities by SMM's Department of Evaluation and Research in Learning will inform future efforts to scale up the network and to implement other research coordination networks.
