scholarly journals Adapting to Extreme Heat: Social, Atmospheric, and Infrastructure Impacts of Air-Conditioning in Megacities—The Case of New York City

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Gamarro ◽  
Luis Ortiz ◽  
Jorge E. González
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Air Conditioning ◽  
Heat Exposure ◽  
Extreme Heat ◽  
Extreme Heat Events ◽  
Heat Events

Abstract Extreme heat events are becoming more frequent and intense. In cities, the urban heat island (UHI) can often intensify extreme heat exposure, presenting a public health challenge across vulnerable populations without access to adaptive measures. Here, we explore the impacts of increasing residential air-conditioning (AC) adoption as one such adaptive measure to extreme heat, with New York City (NYC) as a case study. This study uses AC adoption data from NYC Housing and Vacancy Surveys to study impacts to indoor heat exposure, energy demand, and UHI. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, coupled with a multilayer building environment parameterization and building energy model (BEP–BEM), is used to perform this analysis. The BEP–BEM schemes are modified to account for partial AC use and used to analyze current and full AC adoption scenarios. A city-scale case study is performed over the summer months of June–August 2018, which includes three different extreme heat events. Simulation results show good agreement with surface weather stations. We show that increasing AC systems to 100% usage across NYC results in a peak energy demand increase of 20%, while increasing UHI on average by 0.42 °C. Results highlight potential trade-offs in extreme heat adaptation strategies for cities, which may be necessary in the context of increasing extreme heat events.

Forecasting the New York City Urban Heat Island and Sea Breeze during Extreme Heat Events

2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 1460-1477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Talmor Meir ◽  
Philip M. Orton ◽  
Julie Pullen ◽  
Teddy Holt ◽  
William T. Thompson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Urban Heat Island ◽  
York City ◽  
Sea Breeze ◽  
Extreme Heat ◽  
Heat Island ◽  
Extreme Heat Events ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
Heat Events

Abstract Two extreme heat events impacting the New York City (NYC), New York, metropolitan region during 7–10 June and 21–24 July 2011 are examined in detail using a combination of models and observations. The U.S. Navy's Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS) produces real-time forecasts across the region on a 1-km resolution grid and employs an urban canopy parameterization to account for the influence of the city on the atmosphere. Forecasts from the National Weather Service's 12-km resolution North American Mesoscale (NAM) implementation of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model are also examined. The accuracy of the forecasts is evaluated using a land- and coastline-based observation network. Observed temperatures reached 39°C or more at central urban sites over several days and remained high overnight due to urban heat island (UHI) effects, with a typical nighttime urban–rural temperature difference of 4°–5°C. Examining model performance broadly over both heat events and 27 sites, COAMPS has temperature RMS errors averaging 1.9°C, while NAM has RMSEs of 2.5°C. COAMPS high-resolution wind and temperature predictions captured key features of the observations. For example, during the early summer June heat event, the Long Island south shore coastline experienced a more pronounced sea breeze than was observed for the July heat wave.

scholarly journals Compounding Risks Caused by Heat Exposure and COVID-19 in New York City: A Review of Policies, Tools, and Pilot Survey Results

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150015
Author(s):  
Jennifer Bock ◽  
Palak Srivastava ◽  
Sonal Jessel ◽  
Jacqueline M. Klopp ◽  
Robbie M. Parks
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
York City ◽  
Air Conditioning ◽  
Green Space ◽  
Heat Exposure ◽  
Pilot Survey ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Effective Component

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic changed many social, economic, environmental, and healthcare determinants of health in New York City (NYC) and worldwide. COVID-19 potentially heightened the risk of heat-related health impacts in NYC, particularly on the most vulnerable communities, who often lack equitable access to adequate cooling mechanisms such as air conditioning (AC) and good quality green space. Here, we review some of the policies and tools which have been developed to reduce vulnerability to heat in NYC. We then present results from an online pilot survey of members of the environmental justice organization WE ACT for Environmental Justice (WE ACT) between July 11 and August 8, 2020, which asked questions to evaluate how those in Northern Manhattan coped with elevated summer heat in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also make some policy recommendations based on our initial findings. Results of our pilot survey suggest that people stayed indoors more due to COVID-19 and relied more on AC units to stay cool. Survey responses also indicated that some avoided visiting green spaces due to concerns around overcrowding and did not regularly frequent them due to the distance from their homes. The responses also demonstrate a potential racial disparity in AC access; AC ownership and access was highest amongst white and lowest amongst Latino/a/x and Black respondents. The impacts of COVID-19 have highlighted the need to accelerate efforts to improve preparedness for extreme heat like the City of New York’s AC and cooling center programs, heat ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) retrofitting, equitable green space expansion, and stronger environmental justice community networks and feedback mechanisms to hear from affected residents. Conducting a survey of this kind annually may provide an additional effective component of evaluating cooling initiatives in NYC.

A Demand Based Optimum Solar Panel Orientation

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad H. Naraghi
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Power Consumption ◽  
York City ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Solar Panel ◽  
Consumption Pattern ◽  
Tilted Surface ◽  
Typical Summer ◽  
Building Cooling

The clear sky and monthly clearness index models are used to evaluate the hourly and monthly insolation on unit area of a tilted surface for the entire year. The hourly power consumption of a typical municipality (for this case New York City) for typical summer and winter days are used to determine the tilt and azimuth angles of a solar panel such that the solar energy reached the panel best match the energy consumption pattern. For the example case considered, in this work New York City, the electric power consumption peaks during summers at afternoon hours, due to increase in building cooling loads. It is found that orienting the solar panel at a westward azimuth angle with a tilt angle that results in maximum annual insolation is the best orientation of the solar panel for responding to both the peak energy demand and having reasonably high overall annual power generation. Although the model is used to optimize the solar panel orientation for New York City, it can however, be used for any building at any location as long as the needed solar data and power consumption pattern are known.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document