Increasing urbanization means that policies enacted in cities are critical to mitigating the effects of climate change, urban heat island (UHI) effects, and natural or man-made disasters. CSHub research analyzes the economic, environmental, and hazard resistance impacts of building configuration and design in urban environments. This includes studying the UHI effect, which is defined as a temperature difference between urban areas and their rural surroundings where the city temperature is higher, and investigating ways to make cities more energy-efficient.

• What can cities and towns do to lower extreme temperatures? (Ask MIT Climate, July 2023)
• Cool pavement is like sunscreen for streets. Can it take the heat out of concrete cities? (The Globe and Mail, July 2023)
• Yahoo News: Could ‘cool pavements’ help in the battle against climate change? (August 2021)
• MIT News: Countering climate change with cool pavements (August 2021)
• The Boston Globe: Solutions to Extreme Heat Can be Found in Our Streets (August 2021)
• The Conversation: Lighter Pavement Really Does Cool Cities (June 2021)
• MIT Climate: Urban Heat Islands (April 2021)
• MIT News: Urban heat island effects depend on a city’s layout (MIT News, February 2018)
• Forbes: Could math hold the key to more energy-efficient cities? (September 2016)
• MIT News: How to make cities more energy efficient (MIT News, April 2016)
• Boston Globe: What ‘urban physics’ could tell us about how cities work (July 2014)

Topic Summaries

• Mitigating Climate Change with Reflective Pavements (November 2020)
• Urban Energy Consumption (March 2019)

Research Briefs

• Geospatial data enables the accurate prediction of radiative heat transfer (November 2017)
• Quantifying the Impact of Pavement Reflectivity on Radiative Forcing and Building Energy Demand in Neighborhoods (March 2017)
• City Geometry and Urban Heat Island (November 2015)
• Urban Physics: City Texture Matters (October 2014)
• Streamlined Energy Modeling of Residential Buildings (June 2014)

Publications

• Qomi, Mohammad Javad Abdolhosseini; Noshadravan, A.; Sobstyl, J.; Toole, J.; Ferreira, J.; Pellenq, RJM, Ulm, Franz-Josef; Gonzalez, M. “Data analytics for simplifying thermal efficiency planning in cities” Journal of the Royal Society Interface, April 2016
• Sobstyl, J.M., Emig, T., Abdolhosseini Qomi, M.J., Ulm, F.-J., and Pellenq R. J.-M., “Role of City Texture in Urban Heat Islands at Night Time.” Physical Review Letters, February 2018