Urban Heat Island Mapping Project

This project aims to implement established protocols for a comprehensive, multi-year study of UHIs in Portland and South Portland.

UHIs represent areas within cities experiencing elevated temperatures compared to their surrounding rural areas. These temperature disparities, driven primarily by human activities and the built environment, have adverse effects on public health, energy consumption, and overall quality of life. As the region faces warming trends, residents in densely populated neighborhoods without adequate cooling infrastructure will encounter increasing challenges around staying cool, particularly during the summer months. Given that the Gulf of Maine is one of the fastest-warming ocean regions on the planet, we feel that tracking this data is a critical step in building resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Our strategy involves utilizing a combination of static temperature and humidity sensors collecting year-round data, complemented by mobile temperature/humidity sensors following predetermined routes on peak heat days, creating comprehensive transects across urban neighborhoods. While NASA’s remote-sensed and ground temperature data provide critical insights, measuring ambient temperature approximately six feet above the ground offers a tangible understanding of the extreme heat experienced by individuals within UHIs. Collecting ground-truthed air temperature data, vividly representing the human-scale experience of extreme heat and UHIs, necessitates human participation in data collection.

Our aspiration is to foster meaningful relationships with marginalized communities in these municipalities by engaging local leaders, educators, and youth. We will be facilitating a ground-up approach for involving and engaging these communities in data collection and analysis. By creating connection within and between communities, our aim is to empower community members to actively participate in data collection and analysis, catalyzing social change.

We are currently in the process of deploying four PurpleAir sensors. We plan to collaborate with a diverse range of community partners, including minority-facing organizations to develop a protocol for UHI data capture and analysis. Through these collaborations, we aim to actively involve minoritized communities in the data collection and analysis process, ensuring our efforts resonate with their lived experiences and effectively address their unique challenges.