Novel Greenness Metrics Using Remote Sensing and Street Imagery for Climate Change Mitigation and Environmental Health Research

FALL 2019 RESEARCH INCUBATION AWARDEES

PI: M. Patricia Fabian, Research Assistant Professor of Environment Health, SPH
Co-PI: Lucy Hutyra, Associate Professor of Earth and Environment, CAS

Urban green space can impact communities by mitigating the effects of heatwaves, reducing the rates of urban runoff, and moderating heat islands. Exposure to green space will also lead to various types of diseases. However, little research has been done to leverage the extensive knowledge and computational advances from other fields to characterize greenness. The team will construct novel metrics of greenness exposure to be used in climate and health studies by using high-resolution remote sensing, urban tree biomass, and processed street view image databases and to yield a comprehensive database that can be used in the future studies of climate, health, and environmental health. The team is planning on publishing at least one manuscript of the work.