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NASA Landsat Urban Heat Island Mapping and Analysis Platform

Solution Overview

The City of Chicago partnered with City Tech Collaborative, Microsoft, Esri, and d3i Systems to develop a technology-enabled approach for quantifying urban heat islands and assessing heat reduction interventions using advanced environmental data from NASA.[3] This initiative used NASA Landsat data to analyze heat trends and measure temperature changes over time, allowing the City to illustrate areas of Chicago that are disproportionately burdened by above-average and extreme heat.[2][3] The approach enabled city officials to work with NASA scientists to better understand the temporal and spatial evolution of the city's urban heat island.[3]

Technical Components

The technical infrastructure integrated multiple specialized platforms and data sources to enable comprehensive urban heat analysis. Esri's ArcGIS mapping and spatial analytics software provided an essential platform to host urban heat island assessment data for the Chicago project.[1] Microsoft Azure and other tools were critical for the management, security, and analyzation of climate data in the urban heat assessment project.[1] The system incorporated d3i Systems' expertise in supercomputer-based research using advanced models of Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and land masses to help the team understand heat trends and the effect on the Earth's surface in Chicago.[1] The team used existing NASA Landsat data to analyze local heat trends and measure temperature changes over time by focusing on specific locations where planners had installed heat-reducing green infrastructure.[1] At 30 meters, Landsat had a finer resolution for capturing the urban heat interventions in Chicago compared to other satellite data sources the group explored.[2] The urban heat visualizations were based on NASA satellite images that show heat concentrations and change over time, with satellites passing over a city two to three times per month providing approximately six images per summer.[5] The Urban Heat Response solution made weather and climate information based on NASA environmental data accessible through Esri's ArcGIS mapping and analytics platform and hosted in Microsoft's Azure Cloud.[4]

Implementation Details

Using Landsat's historical archive, the project examined trends of heat severity over time across Chicago and the statistical significance of land surface temperature changes at 26 intervention sites, which were mostly parks along with some neighborhoods.[2] The analysis utilized Landsat scenes between 2000 and 2019 to evaluate temperature changes across the city.[2] The Chicago Department of Planning and Development brought critical stakeholder feedback on solution design and usefulness for the urban heat island assessment tool.[1] Also involved in the project were Chicago's Department of Public Health and the Office of Emergency Management Control.[2] The prototype heat mapping tool was slated for testing in Chicago in early 2020.[3][5] The partners Microsoft, Esri, systems engineering and advanced analytics firm d3i Systems and the City of Chicago continued their work to devise the tool through the end of that year.[5] Following the proof-of-concept period, the tool could be expanded to include any city for which satellite data is available.[5]

Benefits and Impacts

The analysis revealed significant temperature reductions at multiple intervention sites across the city. Five of the 26 assessed sites in Chicago showed a statistically significant decrease in temperature of the surrounding area: Millennium Park, Stearns Quarry/Palmisano Park, Steelworkers Park, Park 540, and Park 566.[1] Five of the intervention sites, including Millennium Park, had statistically significant decreases in surface temperature, while one had a gain in temperature.[2] The researchers found that some larger-scale hot spots in Chicago had decreased considerably in severity, such as the south side and the eastern edge along Lake Michigan, and others less so, like the center and the north edge.[2] Conversely, western Chicago had persistent hot spots, and some had intensified.[2] Brad Roback from Chicago's Department of Planning and Development stated they thought they could use this data to do some planning, like looking for places where they might want to target green infrastructure or other types of treatments that would help with the elevated surface temperatures.[2] Urban planners, emergency management directors and local policymakers could use the data to identify urban hotspots and quantify the impact of urban heat interventions or land use policy changes.[5] City Tech Collaborative's heat mapping tool allowed urban planners to understand the areas in a community most susceptible to the heat island effect and track the changes over time, providing more granular information than has been available on this topic.[5]

Climate Adaptation Relevance

This technology-enabled approach directly addresses the growing threat of urban heat islands by providing quantifiable data on temperature variations and the effectiveness of heat reduction interventions.[1] The system enables municipal authorities to identify areas disproportionately burdened by above-average and extreme heat, supporting targeted adaptation strategies for vulnerable communities.[2][3]

Business Analysis

The implementation model demonstrated potential for broad scalability and accessibility across municipal contexts. Once the heat mapping tool was live, it would be accessible to cities of all sizes because it built on Esri software many urban planners already use.[5] The tool integrated NASA weather and climate data into Esri's ArcGIS mapping and analytics platform, leveraging existing infrastructure investments.[5] The collaborative partnership structure brought together public sector agencies with private technology providers to create a new tool to incorporate NASA environmental data into urban design and infrastructure planning.[4] Urban planners and government officials would be able to better evaluate the need for and impact of urban green spaces and other approaches to manage urban hotspots through the accessible platform.[4]

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