Researcher at the Faculty of Engineering UNAB is awarded an important research project on heat islands financed by NOAA

Today, Santiago joins as the third city outside the United States to carry out this research. The project arrives for the first time in Chile thanks to the researcher at the Faculty of Engineering of the Andrés Bello University, Raquel Jiménezwho recently was awarded funds granted by NOAA to carry it out.

Called Santiago HOT, the project aims to identify heat islands in Greater Santiago during the summer of 2024, in order to better understand the spatial distribution of heat exposure and its impact on people’s health.

This, because as temperatures increase as a result of climate change, the heat is much more concentrated in some parts of the city than in others. These places are called heat islands and are characterized by sparse vegetation and an abundant presence of cement and asphalt.. The result is that the temperature rises by several degrees, affecting the quality of life of those who live there, and may even have fatal consequences.

Along with expressing her satisfaction with this award, UNAB researcher Raquel Jiménez highlights the importance of the project, which seeks to generate a heat map from data collection. “What is not measured, is not managed. This information is essential to characterize the distribution of risk and understand how it affects different groups of the population.in order to protect vulnerable groups and design mitigation interventions with climate justice considerations”, says the expert.

citizen science

One of the aspects that the researcher highlights about the Santiago HOT project is that it is a collective work which includes various organizations, both national and international, academia and the participation of voluntary citizens for data collection.

The initiative to map the urban heat islands in Santiago during the summer of 2024 is being developed in conjunction with the United States Office of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), through the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS)he Boston University Department of Environmental Health and various Chilean NGOs, including Muévete and the social change laboratory change us.

From the Andrés Bello University, the project directed by Raquel Jiménez is being supported by the center CITYhe Transportation and Logistics Centerand the Vice-Rector for Research and Doctorate.

detecting heat islands

“The heart of this citizen science project consists of making field measurements throughout the city during a heat wave to characterize the intensity and spatial variability of extreme heat,” explains the UNAB researcher.

The method that will be used to carry out the research incorporates vehicle-mounted thermal sensors. The volunteers will travel predefined routes —on a carefully chosen day of maximum heat—, where they will measure the temperature through different sectors of the city. The collected data will then be integrated with satellite data and other sources of information about the built environment to generate urban heat maps at high spatial resolution. These maps will serve as input for decision-making in the design of interventions that help mitigate this problem. Raquel Jiménez adds that:

The heat maps will be accessible to the entire population, thus generating a valuable information resource for scientists, regulators, and citizens concerned about the impacts of heat on people’s health.

learning opportunity

NOAA has been funding the CAPA Heat Watch initiative since 2017. It is an extreme heat observatory developed by CAPA, an agency that provides analysis and planning tools for adaptation to climate change. So far, the initiative has been successfully implemented in various cities in the United States, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

LAYER Strategies has developed a process that helps cities plan and execute a citizen science campaign on the ground, that is, built on local organizations and with the help of volunteer residents who carry out scientific research together.

One of the benefits of these field campaigns, beyond the information that is collected, is that they are an excellent opportunity to raise awareness about the impacts of extreme heat and the factors that influence the uneven distribution of heat in the same community. Likewise, they constitute a very good opportunity to encourage scientific learning in the younger public.