Climate-resilient cities: science and solutions for global urban heat stress

Extreme urban heat, driven by climate change and rapid urbanization, poses a growing threat to public health, energy systems, and economic productivity. Yet effective urban heat mitigation is hindered by two key gaps: limited mechanistic understanding of urban heat environment across global cities, and a lack of robust tools to assess the climate and economic tradeoffs of heat mitigation strategies.

My research bridges these gaps by combining urban climate, global climate modelling, and econometric analysis to inform climate-resilient urban planning. In this talk, I first examine how urbanization reshapes surface climate and humid heat stress across global cities, highlighting an overlooked humid heat risk in tropical cities where informal settlements lack access to cooling facilities. I then evaluate the climate and energy impacts of novel building materials under various background climates. Finally, I extend these physical climate insights into policy-relevant outcomes by quantifying the economic costs of the urban heat island, which supports economically rational decision-making in heat interventions.

Together, my work provides a scientific and decision-making foundation for designing effective and equitable heat mitigation strategies in a warming world.

Speaker: Keer Zhang, Princeton University

Attend in person or online (see weblink)