Principal Investigator(s):

Ronald Slosberg, Cynthia Rosenzweig, William D. Solecki

Summary:

Project Update (217kb .pdf)

The objectives of this project are twofold:

1. To model New York City's urban heat island during heat wave events and assess the effectiveness and economies of three potential heat island mitigation strategies: urban forestation, light surfaces, and living roofs.
2. To evaluate potential interactive consequences associated with heat islands, with particular attention to land use categorization, electric loads (especially on-peak and in load pockets) and air quality/health impacts (i.e. ozone).

The project used temperature data from three heat waves in the summer of 2002, as well as contemporary temperature data and satellite imaging. An MM5 mesoscale model was used to characterize surface and near-surface air temperatures associated with various land cover and urban morphology types in six case study areas, and the impacts of nine mitigation scenarios were calculated for each case study area as well as for New York City as a whole.

Early analysis indicates that all three mitigation strategies can reduce surface temperatures and, to a lesser degree, near-surface air temperatures, thereby lessening peak electric load during heat waves. Street trees offer the greatest cooling potential per unit area, as well as the greatest overall benefits, while light surfaces offer the greatest overall cooling potential due to the large area available to implement this strategy, and the most favorable benefit/cost ratio. The estimated maximum peak load electric demand reduction from planting street trees in 50% of the available space citywide is 74.29MW. For a 50% implementation of light surfaces citywide the reduction is 200.99MW.

Partners:

Downloads:

Project Update (217kb .pdf)

Final Report (3.75MB .pdf)

Project Site(s):

Metropolitan NY

Latitude/Longitude:

Region(s): Metropolitan New York

County(ies): Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens

Sampling:

Sampled Medium(Media): air

Analyte(s): temperature

Sampling Technolog(ies): satellite imaging, weather stations

Sampling Frequency: three heat waves in the summer of 2002

Funding:

Total Costs:

NYSERDA Costs: $134,010

Funding Source(s): NYSERDA, US Forest Service, NYSDEC, NYCDEP

Contract Initiated: June-04

Final Report: February 2006

Links:

Project Website:

Related EMEP Projects: George Thurston 6084, Monica Mazurek 7616, Kenneth Demerjian 4918, Daniel Luttinger 6484

Related Link(s):

Contact:

Ronald B. Slosberg Manager, Energy Solutions Division Science Applications International Corporation 500 New Karner Road Suite 202 Albany, NY 12205 PH: (518) 452-8800, ext 216 Email: ronald.b.slosberg@saic.com
Cynthia Rosenzweig Goddard Inst. for Space Studies 2880 Broadway New York, NY 10025 PH: (212) 678-5562 Fax: (212) 678-5648 Email: crosenzweig@giss.nasa.gov
William D. Solecki Professor and Acting Chair Department of Geography Hunter College - City University of New York New York, New York 10021 PH: (212) 772 4536 Fax: (212) 772 5268 Email: wsolecki@hunter.cuny.edu