As urban heat waves become a growing concern, scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) now have a new tool to model the impact of extreme temperatures on vulnerable communities. Their innovative simulation considers the combined effects of building infrastructure to better understand the risks of urban heat. This approach helps city planners create strategies to address this issue, as per an Oak Ridge National Laboratory release.
The urgency of addressing urban heat waves is supported by recent statistics. The Northern Hemisphere’s hottest summer on record occurred from June to August 2024, with temperatures 2.74°F above average. Las Vegas set a new record in July, reaching 120°F and experiencing seven consecutive days above 115°F. These events highlight the need for better predictions and planning for extreme weather, which can lead to loss of life.
"There is a lot of sharing of heat among buildings. That can be advantageous in the winter, but in the summer if you’re retaining that much heat in a neighborhood, it can amplify a heat wave. If you don't have those buildings represented in your model, then you can’t understand what that amplification is and how it compounds urban heat islands," Melissa Dumas of ORNL explained in the same release. Previous models didn't consider how buildings impact urban climate.
Dumas and her team tested their model using the July 2010 heat wave in Washington, D.C. "We found that the neighborhoods with the lowest average income were the most adversely affected by the heat wave — something we would not have been able to determine without this building data" Dumas said in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory release.
The team has developed open-source software, detailed in the Journal of Open Source Software, that allows users to customize models with local data. The research was funded by the DOE Office of Science and involved collaboration with experts from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Procter & Gamble, Baylor University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Boston University. This software is part of the effort to address critical environmental challenges.
