Improving the Modeling of Nature-Based Solutions in Cities: Representation of Street Trees in an Urban Canopy Model
Summary
Urban trees are highly effective nature-based solutions to mitigate excessive heat stress in cities. To understand the cooling mechanisms of urban trees and their effectiveness in urban heat mitigation, it is critical and imperative to accurately simulate how they interact with the ambient built environment is critical and imperative. However, the representation of street trees in existing urban climate modeling remains oversimplified. In this seminar, we will first introduce a single-layer urban canopy model, ASLUM v3.1, which was designed to improve street tree modeling. This model enables the modeling of several biophysical functions of trees, such as radiative shading, canopy transmittance, and evapotranspiration. Simulated impacts of street trees with varying characteristics on urban radiation exchange and hydrometeorological conditions will be presented. Additionally, we will introduce two recent studies on the coupling of ASLUM 3.1 model with a building energy model and a human thermal stress model with applications in pedestrian thermal comfort predictions. The seminar will conclude with a brief discussion of an ongoing effort to compare various urban land surface models globally. This seminar series is co-organized by CHUD (Center for Housing & Urban Development), GeoSAT (Center for Geospatial Sciences, Applications and Technology), and TAMIDS-DAL (Design and Analytics Lab for Urban Artificial Intelligence @ Texas A&M Institute of Data Science).
Speaker’s information
Dr. Chenghao Wang received his Ph.D. degree in Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering from Arizona State University in 2019. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University in 2020–2022, during which he was also a New Map of Life Fellow in Environment and Climate at Stanford Center on Longevity. He joined the School of Meteorology and the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Oklahoma as an Assistant Professor in 2022. Dr. Wang’s research focuses on the mechanisms of urban environments, their interactions with regional and global climates, and their impacts on building energy use, carbon emissions, and public health through a combination of numerical models and data analytics. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Wang currently chairs the International Association for Urban Climate’s Bibliography Committee.
Time: 10:00-10:30 a.m. US Central Time (Thursday, March 30, 2023)
Zoom Meeting ID: 732 641 0814 Passcode: 575829
Direct Link: https://tamu.zoom.us/j/7326410814?pwd=cGZKY045dmVkdzVRLy9MYWhocWorQT09
Faculty Host: Xinyue Ye, Dept. of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, TAMU