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Miles O’Brien: On this hot afternoon,
remote sensing scientist Deepak Mishra and his team
are at the University of Georgia Campus Transit Bus Yard
installing a temperature sensor on the front of a bus.
Deepak Mishra: We’re able to do this research
because of the revolution in sensing technologies,
the explosion in data science research.
Miles O’Brien: At the peak of summer,
about 30 buses will be similarly wired up.
Deepak Mishra: We’re collecting temperature
data from these buses, every five seconds,
as they go around the campus, go around the town.
Miles O’Brien: Volunteers, mostly students,
are pitching in too with wearable sensors
strapped to their backpacks and belts.
Deepak Mishra: And, then we start seeing
how these temperatures are changing across town.
Which areas are consistently showing high temperatures,
and what happens in the evening time,
what happens in the nighttime?
Andrew Grundstein: 32 is about 90 Fahrenheit.
Student: Yes…
Miles O’Brien: With support from the National
Science Foundation, the University of Georgia team
is compiling highly detailed, fine-resolution maps
showing what’s called the “Urban Heat Island”
in their town of Athens, Georgia.
Andrew Grundstein: Heat is the leading
weather killer. It kills more people every year
than tornadoes, hurricanes, floods.
Miles O’Brien: Scientists have known
about the Urban Heat Island effect for decades,
making maps from satellite data.
Heat islands are urban areas that are hotter
than their less developed surroundings,
mostly because they’re largely devoid of trees.
Dark surfaces, like roads and rooftops absorb heat,
and radiate it back out.
Some parts of a city can be as much at 15 degrees hotter
than others.
Deepak Mishra: This project is going
beyond that to see
what is happening within the urban heat island.
Miles O’Brien: Usually when you check
the weather,
you get one temperature reading for a whole city,
but what if you could know the temperature
on a block-by-block, street-by-street basis?
Deepak Mishra: So, we’re trying to figure out
how this temperature changes at a very fine scale.
So, that people can better prepare.
Miles O’Brien: Geographer Andrew Grundstein
studies how weather and climate affect human health.
He says hyperlocal heat maps could save lives
by pinpointing pockets of extreme heat.
Andrew Grundstein: Heat stroke is the most
serious heat “thing.”
Your organs can shut down. It can be life-threatening,
so we really want to prevent people
from getting into that point.
Miles O’Brien: Particularly at risk
are the elderly, children, athletes,
people with chronic medical conditions like diabetes,
and those who do physical labor outside.
Andrew Grundstein: People that, say,
can’t afford air-conditioning
or don’t have air-conditioning can be at risk.
Some research shows that poor communities
are often in hotter parts of the cities
because they don’t have as much green space.
Miles O’Brien: Computer
scientist Lakshmish Ramaswamy is the lead on the data
gathering and analysis.
They’ve designed a smart phone app
to make the wearable sensors easy to use.
They need clean data to make the maps
reflect real on-the-ground conditions.
Lakshmish Ramaswamy: Okay, this particular sensor,
somebody carried it, maybe they put it in their pocket
or maybe they put it in their backpack?
So, the data that is coming out is anomalous.
Can we detect that using data mining algorithms,
machine learning algorithms?
Miles O’Brien: Only then can they use
the dataset to make fine-tuned inferences
and predictions about temperature variations
over short distances within a city.
Lakshmish Ramaswamy: Long term, can we predict
what is the exposure profile
of a particular individual or a particular community?
For example, the community of city workers
who are doing the roadwork,
or the garbage collectors out there.
What kind of heat exposures are they facing?
Miles O’Brien: This project in Athens
is a small-scale experiment,
but Mishra expects these heat maps
will be commonplace in the future.
City planners will use them to decide where to plant trees.
Communities can use them to make sure people at risk
have access to water and air-conditioned spaces.
Deepak Mishra: I see a day
when people have this app in their phone,
and then the phone tells them “take this route,
you’ll be less exposed to urban heat.”
Miles O’Brien: Using data to drive
better decision-making when the heat is on.
For Science Nation, I’m Miles O’Brien.