Dept. of Geosciences Colloquium: Mapping shade: where, why and how?

Zoom: https://tau-ac-il.zoom.us/j/83294569872?pwd=WmdPUWRPdGVQejIvcXhsQmFJY094UT09

​Abstract:

In recent years, alongside the growing concerns about climate change, “urban heat” has become a recurring theme in urban planning and urban management discourse. While heat in urban environments is widely regarded as an exacerbating problem that mandates the adoption of effective adaptation and mitigation policies, a major gap still exists between the breadth of scientific knowledge on the different faces of urban heat and the tools available for planning and design professionals to implement scientific insights in common planning processes. In this respect, visual maps can play a major role in easily communicating the complexities of urban climatic phenomena and directing actions to locations where they are most needed. Nevertheless, such maps can be misleading or confusing, especially in the eyes of professionals with no background in climatology or meteorology. The presentation will discuss the challenges of mapping urban heat, focusing on new methods and tools for mapping outdoor shade as a proxy for the more complex concepts of heat stress and heat vulnerability. The exceptional significance of shade provision in climatic planning enabled us to argue that mapping shade across an entire city can be a valuable tool that could bridge the gap between the science of urban climatology and the planning and design professions in geographic locations where urban heat is a major climatic challenge.

Event Organizer: Dr. Roy Barkan