Recently, $300,000 was awarded by NOAA’s Climate Program Office to "Exposure-based Extreme Heat Vulnerability Mapping to Inform Adaptation and Mitigation of Extreme Heat Exposure Risk in Small Cities and Rural Settlements.” Overseen by UVM's Elizabeth Doran, PhD, a CEMS research assistant professor, the two-year College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences project has involved both graduate and undergraduate students in the data collection and research and was one of only 5 selected through a competitive review process.
The projects will build on outcomes from NOAA's community-led field campaigns, which have helped engage the Burlington community and have produced critical hyperlocal temperature information. But cities, and Vermont's smaller cities and communities in particular, need more tools and resources to help them determine the most effective and efficient solutions tailored to their needs.
Gregory Rowangould, Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UVM and Director of the Transportation Research Center, explained “The smaller, more fined grained, approach we are taking with this new research project will allow us to identify where people all across Vermont are exposed to excessive heat produced by transportation infrastructure, map areas of vulnerability (where there is higher heat and populations at greater risk of adverse health impacts from heat exposure), and help state and municipal agencies target solutions to the places and people that most need them.”
“Even within the same community, some neighborhoods are experiencing much higher temperatures than others,” said Hunter Jones, lead of CPO’s Extreme Heat Risk Team. “These projects will address research gaps to help communities understand what factors are contributing to urban heat disparities and evaluate science-based interventions to design safer cities and protect communities.”
Elizabeth Doran took some time to answer a few questions about extreme heat:
Q. Why is the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences well suited to undertake a project on extreme heat?
A. It may seem counterintuitive to conduct research on urban heat in a small, rural state, but it's important to remember that the highest temperatures associated with this summer's recent extreme heat wave out west occurred in the small community of Lytton, Canada, which has a population of 250. In fact, every community with a village, town or city center likely has the built infrastructure that contributes to what is generally called the urban heat island, where developed areas are warmer than their rural surroundings, particularly at night. Big cities usually get most of the attention, but recent NOAA mapping efforts in cities around the country suggest that the heat distribution in a given community can vary significantly over fairly small distances. That's what makes this NOAA funded extreme heat project so interesting. We are collecting data to characterize the heat signature in small and rural communities across the state that are often left out of this type of research.
Q. What has past research shown about extreme heat and Vermont?
A. Past research has shown that extreme heat, combined with cold winters, means New Englanders are susceptible to heat related illness at lower temperatures, around 87 degrees Fahrenheit, than in other parts of the country where the threshold is 90 degrees. The state has additional factors that contribute to extreme heat vulnerability including an aging population and some of the oldest building stock in the country. So, we are also working with Vermont's unique high resolution data sets to better understand who is potentially exposed to areas of elevated temperature based on where they live.
Q. What is the goal of this project?
A. In addition to raising awareness about this issue in local communities, the findings of this project should help our state and local partners better target programs and interventions to help communities and individuals adapt to future heat waves. We can't control the weather, but we can do our best to prepare. To that end, we are excited to be working with a robust network of partners across the state including the Vermont Health Department, Vermont Emergency Management, Efficiency Vermont, and the National Weather Service, among others.