HR: 1340h
AN: GC13B-1246    [Abstracts]
TI: Reshaping the Built Environment to Reduce Environmental and Public Health Impacts of Summertime Heat
AU: * Rosenthal, J E
EM: jr438@columbia.edu
AF: Columbia University, Urban Planning Program Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation Avery Hall,4th floor, New York, NY 10027 United States
AU: Bakewell, K
EM: kab2130@columbia.edu
AF: Columbia University, Urban Planning Program Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation Avery Hall,4th floor, New York, NY 10027 United States
AB: Many American cities are experiencing two types of warming trends in their local climate that due to global environmental change, and that due to local environmental change. Over the next five decades, urban areas within temperate regions may warm disproportionately compared to tropical and subtropical zones according to the IPCC Special Report on The Regional Impacts of Climate Change, and the frequency of very hot days in these climates is expected to approximately double for an increase of 2-3°C in the average summer temperature. As well, due to urbanized land-cover, air temperatures in cities can register 2 to 10 degrees F higher than in surrounding rural areas, resulting in a hotter environment, higher energy demand, and accelerated smog formation due to the urban heat island effect. Our previous research analyzed the temperature differences over time between NY Central Park (NYCP) station and 23 metropolitan regional weather stations classified according to distance and level of urbanization, and showed a heat island effect existing in NYC, with mean temperatures in the NYCP Station generally higher than the surrounding stations, ranging from 1.20 C to 3.02 C. A difference of at least 1 C already existed at the beginning of the 20th century between the mean temperature in NYC and its surrounding rural areas, and this difference increased over the twentieth century. Summertime heat can create heat stress and other health consequences for urban residents. In cities around the world, summer heat can lead to elevated mortality and morbidity rates, especially during extreme events. The epidemiological literature has identified factors in the built environment and demographic characteristics that can increase the risk of heat-related mortality. The elderly and people with pre-existing illnesses are especially vulnerable; also, being bedridden, living alone, and having poor access to public transportation or air-conditioned places. During the Chicago 1995 heat wave, risk of mortality was higher in the black community, and in those living in certain types of low-income and multi-tenant housing. Interventions in the built environment to promote urban heat island mitigation can reduce ambient temperatures, potentially reducing heat-related mortality rates in vulnerable populations, electricity consumption and air pollutant emissions, and slow ozone formation, an important health stressor. These mitigation measures may also serve as adaptive responses for a range of potential future climate conditions. Here we review current research that assesses the health, air quality, and energy conservation benefits in cities from these interventions in the built environment, and discuss the techniques and research objectives of a new pilot community-based project to mitigate the heat island effect in the South Bronx, New York City through implementation of vegetated and high albedo roofing on residential and institutional buildings. Recent studies use mesoscale climate models and a variety of land-use and land-cover scenarios to project the effects of increasing vegetative fraction and albedo within metropolitan regions and to evaluate the impacts of measures that may serve both as adaptive responses to current conditions and mitigation for future climate variability. Through this perspective, we address the questions: What urban design approaches make for resilient cities in a changing environment? What costs and benefits may be expected by the adoption of heat island mitigation techniques within the New York metropolitan region?
DE: 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE
DE: 1622 Earth system modeling (1225)
DE: 1630 Impacts of global change (1225)
DE: 1631 Land/atmosphere interactions (1218, 1843, 3322)
DE: 1637 Regional climate change
SC: Global Climate Change [GC]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005