Albedo and Its Impact on the Urban Heat Island Effect: Characterizing the Urban Surface and Its Heat Mitigation Potential Across a Transact of Cities

Earth and Environment Ph.D. candidate Andrew Trlica, under the advisement of Associate Professor and Founder of the Hutyra Research Lab Lucy Hutyra, seeks to study urban heat islands (UHI), identifying the linkages between urban land cover and surface temperature. Specifically, he will focus on the effect of albedo—the percent of total sunlight reflected rather than absorbed from a surface—in nine heat-impacted cities across the U.S., including Boston.

Trlica aims to provide empirical evidence for policy efforts to combat health risks and increased energy consumption in urban areas due to excessive summertime heat. Trlica will use data from the Landsat orbital observatories to measure land surface temperature and—through statistical analysis and linear- and additive modeling approaches—will produce a model for albedo and surface temperature in urban environments. This study will provide new insights on the connection between albedo, surface temperature and surface features, revealing the link between urban heat islands and urban form at finer spatial scales than prior research.

Trlica has also received funding from the Boston Area Research Initiative and the Boston University Hariri Institute.

View more projects funded through our Early Stage Urban Research Awards