The City as a Laboratory for Exploring Heat Mitigation Strategies

Cities are warming in part due to global climate change & in part due to local warming effects of urbanization. Prompting local governments to initiate or expand efforts to mitigate excess urban heat. The Urban Climate Research Center at ASU, is partnering with local governments to evaluate innovations in urban cooling through pilot projects, looking to accelerate adoption and optimization of urban cooling strategies. David highlights three such projects in his webinar.

David Sailor is a Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning at Arizona State University. He also directs the Urban Climate Research Center, where he coordinates large-scale, interdisciplinary teams working on complex challenges in the urban climate system. His own scholarly agenda focuses on the intersection of climate with the built environment. This includes the investigation of feedback mechanisms between the built environment and climate with a focus on building energy consumption and renewable energy resources as well as both indoor and outdoor thermal comfort and air quality. He has worked extensively on quantifying the causes and prospects for mitigating the urban heat island effect, including the investigation of innovative materials and technologies integrated into building designs and urban infrastructure.