Urban Heat Adaptation and a Smart Decision Support Framework: Fid-Bau Portal

Urban Heat Adaptation and a Smart Decision Support Framework

He, Bao-Jie / Xiong, Ke / Dong, Xin

Many cities are significantly threatened by urban heat challenges, which are the combined result of heatwaves and urban heat island (UHI). Nevertheless, urban heat will be further aggravated due to upward trends of global warming and urbanization. Adopting mitigation and adaptation strategies is of vital importance to secure societies against urban heat threats and vulnerabilities. Whilst many mitigation techniques have been explored, there is a lack of real-time and intelligent guidance to accurately inform people about heat-related impacts and adaptation strategies. Therefore, this study aims to frame the development of a smart urban heat adaptation decision-making system while considering impact assessments and the selection of an adaptation strategy, particularly at the community level, which concerns the high heterogeneities of local climates and people’s activities. This chapter presents the definition and goals of urban heat adaptation, followed by the measures and assessment indicators. Afterwards, existing decision support tools relevant to urban heat mitigation and adaptation are reviewed. Then, an urban heat adaptation system, in connection with a smart decision-making concept, is framed in terms of original heat data collection, heat impact prediction and visualization, and adaptation strategy selection. Finally, a demonstration of a smart path selection for urban heat adaptation is presented. Overall, this study provides support for the accurate assessment of urban heat in communities and contributes to the smart development of sustainable and resilient communities.