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This study addresses a classic sustainability challenge—the tradeoff between water conservation and temperature amelioration in rapidly growing cities, using Phoenix, Arizona and Portland, Oregon as case studies. An urban energy balance model— LUMPS (Local-Scale Urban Meteorological Parameterization Scheme)—is used to represent the tradeoff between outdoor water use and nighttime cooling

This study addresses a classic sustainability challenge—the tradeoff between water conservation and temperature amelioration in rapidly growing cities, using Phoenix, Arizona and Portland, Oregon as case studies. An urban energy balance model— LUMPS (Local-Scale Urban Meteorological Parameterization Scheme)—is used to represent the tradeoff between outdoor water use and nighttime cooling during hot, dry summer months. Tradeoffs were characterized under three scenarios of land use change and three climate-change assumptions. Decreasing vegetation density reduced outdoor water use but sacrificed nighttime cooling. Increasing vegetated surfaces accelerated nighttime cooling, but increased outdoor water use by ~20%. Replacing impervious surfaces with buildings achieved similar improvements in nighttime cooling with minimal increases in outdoor water use; it was the most water-efficient cooling strategy. The fact that nighttime cooling rates and outdoor water use were more sensitive to land use scenarios than climate-change simulations suggested that cities can adapt to a warmer climate by manipulating land use.

ContributorsGober, Patricia (Author) / Middel, Ariane (Author) / Brazel, Anthony J. (Author) / Myint, Soe (Author) / Chang, Heejun (Author) / Duh, Jiunn-Der (Author) / House-Peters, Lily (Author)
Created2013-05-16
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Description

This study seeks to determine the role of land architecture—the composition and configuration of land cover—as well as cadastral/demographic/economic factors on land surface temperature (LST) and the surface urban heat island effect of Phoenix, Arizona. It employs 1 m National Agricultural Imagery Program data of land-cover with 120mLandsat-derived land surface

This study seeks to determine the role of land architecture—the composition and configuration of land cover—as well as cadastral/demographic/economic factors on land surface temperature (LST) and the surface urban heat island effect of Phoenix, Arizona. It employs 1 m National Agricultural Imagery Program data of land-cover with 120mLandsat-derived land surface temperature, decomposed to 30 m, a new measure of configuration, the normalized moment of inertia, and U.S. Census data to address the question for two randomly selected samples comprising 523 and 545 residential neighborhoods (census blocks) in the city. The results indicate that, contrary to most other studies, land configuration has a stronger influence on LST than land composition. In addition, both land configuration and architecture combined with cadastral, demographic, and economic variables, capture a significant amount of explained variance in LST. The results indicate that attention to land architecture in the development of or reshaping of neighborhoods may ameliorate the summer extremes in LST.

ContributorsLi, Xiaoxiao (Author) / Li, Wenwen (Author) / Middel, Ariane (Author) / Harlan, Sharon L. (Author) / Brazel, Anthony J. (Author) / Turner II, B. L. (Author)
Created2015-12-29
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Description
Extreme heat and its human impacts are significant public health challenges that disproportionately affect certain populations. Often, people with the least resources to cope with the heat also live in the hottest regions of cities. Previous heat vulnerability research has predominantly been conducted at a coarse geographic scale, yet translating

Extreme heat and its human impacts are significant public health challenges that disproportionately affect certain populations. Often, people with the least resources to cope with the heat also live in the hottest regions of cities. Previous heat vulnerability research has predominantly been conducted at a coarse geographic scale, yet translating relationships measured at aggregated scales to the individual level can result in ecological fallacy. Prior work has also primarily studied the most severe health outcomes: hospitalization/emergency care and mortality. It is likely that magnitudes more people are experiencing negative health impacts from heat that do not necessarily result in medical care. Such less severe impacts are under-researched in the literature.This dissertation addresses these knowledge gaps by identifying how social characteristics and physical measurements of heat at the individual and household level act independently and in concert to influence human heat-related outcomes, especially less severe outcomes. In the first paper, meta-analysis was used to quantify the summary effects of vulnerability indicators on incidence of heat-related illness. More proximal vulnerability indicators (e.g., residential air conditioning use, indoor heat exposure, etc.) tended to have the strongest impact on odds of experiencing heat-related illness than more distal indicators. In the next paper, indoor air temperature observations were related to the social characteristics of the residents. The strongest predictor of indoor air temperature was the residents’ ideal thermally comfortable temperature, despite affordability. In the final paper, fine scale biometeorological observations of the outdoor thermal environment near residents’ homes were linked to their experience with heat-related illness. The outdoor thermal environment appeared to have a stronger, more consistent impact on heat-related illness among households in a lower income neighborhood compared to a higher income one. These findings affirm the value of employing residential heat mitigation solutions at the individual and household scale, indoors and outdoors. Across all chapters, the indoor thermal environment, and the ability to modify it, had a clear impact on residents’ comfort and health. Solutions that target the most proximal causal factors of heat-related illness will likely have the greatest impact on reducing the burden of heat on human health and well-being.
ContributorsWright, Mary K (Author) / Hondula, David M (Thesis advisor) / Larson, Kelli L (Committee member) / Middel, Ariane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
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Description

Background:
Environmental heat exposure is a public health concern. The impacts of environmental heat on mortality and morbidity at the population scale are well documented, but little is known about specific exposures that individuals experience.

Objectives:
The first objective of this work was to catalyze discussion of the role of personal heat exposure

Background:
Environmental heat exposure is a public health concern. The impacts of environmental heat on mortality and morbidity at the population scale are well documented, but little is known about specific exposures that individuals experience.

Objectives:
The first objective of this work was to catalyze discussion of the role of personal heat exposure information in research and risk assessment. The second objective was to provide guidance regarding the operationalization of personal heat exposure research methods.

Discussion:
We define personal heat exposure as realized contact between a person and an indoor or outdoor environment that poses a risk of increases in body core temperature and/or perceived discomfort. Personal heat exposure can be measured directly with wearable monitors or estimated indirectly through the combination of time–activity and meteorological data sets. Complementary information to understand individual-scale drivers of behavior, susceptibility, and health and comfort outcomes can be collected from additional monitors, surveys, interviews, ethnographic approaches, and additional social and health data sets. Personal exposure research can help reveal the extent of exposure misclassification that occurs when individual exposure to heat is estimated using ambient temperature measured at fixed sites and can provide insights for epidemiological risk assessment concerning extreme heat.

Conclusions:
Personal heat exposure research provides more valid and precise insights into how often people encounter heat conditions and when, where, to whom, and why these encounters occur. Published literature on personal heat exposure is limited to date, but existing studies point to opportunities to inform public health practice regarding extreme heat, particularly where fine-scale precision is needed to reduce health consequences of heat exposure.

ContributorsKuras, Evan R. (Author) / Richardson, Molly B. (Author) / Calkins, Mirian M. (Author) / Ebi, Kristie L. (Author) / Gohlke, Julia M. (Author) / Hess, Jeremy J. (Author) / Hondula, David M. (Author) / Kintziger, Kristina W. (Author) / Jagger, Meredith A. (Author) / Middel, Ariane (Author) / Scott, Anna A. (Author) / Spector, June T. (Contributor) / Uejio, Christopher K. (Author) / Vanos, Jennifer K. (Author) / Zaitchik, Benjamin F. (Author)
Created2017-08