Description
Structures such as buildings, roads, and other infrastructure absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than natural landscapes such as forests and water bodies. Urban areas, where these structures are highly concentrated and greenery is limited, become “islands” of higher temperatures relative to outlying areas. These pockets of heat are referred to as “heat islands.” The rapid growth of urban populations, the urban heat island effect, and increase in the frequency and duration of heat waves due to climate change raise a series of issues about the increased health risks of urban populations sensitive to extreme heat and the need to identify effective means of mitigating the impacts of heat waves.
Remote sensing provides global, timely, objective observations to monitor the effects of urban heat islands (UHI) over time. Thermal mapping from satellites can be used to monitor land surface temperature (LST), while optical data collected from satellites can inform where and when land use and land cover have changed over time and can be used to approximate air temperatures. Once UHIs have been mapped, incorporating socioeconomic data pertaining to population, demographics, and health information into heat vulnerability indices (HVI) can help guide interventions to manage heat related risks to public health. This four-part, advanced webinar led by NASA's Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET) builds on the urban heat island training held in November 2020, with hands-on exercises for participants to measure UHI and construct HVIs for their areas of interest.
This webinar series is a collaboration between ARSET and the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS).