Land Use Science in Action
Impacts of Urban Green Infrastructure on Extreme Events in Cities
A Multi-City Digital Twin Study of the Role of Green Infrastructure in Coupled Land-Atmosphere Prediction
• Developed Noah-MP HUE —the first urban land surface model with sub-grid lateral water transfer and GI heterogeneity
• Urban vegetation in Milwaukee reduced simulated land surface temperatures by 5–15% in heavily impervious areas
• Nocturnal urban heat island reduced by ~2% and precipitation patterns improved vs. in-situ observations
• Large-scale greening reduces summer runoff and lowers daytime heat index on extreme heat days (≥90°F)
• Noah-MP HUE is coupled with WRF, enabling city-scale digital twin simulations of GI adaptation scenarios
Understanding variability of dry and web-bulb temperature across tropical cities
- Satellite land surface temperature (LST) is often used as an indicator of urban heat hazards.
- ECOSTRESS provides high-resolution LST data spanning the entire diurnal cycle.
- However, satellites do not measure the air temperatures that directly influence humans.
- We used ECOSTRESS data and land cover indices to predict dry and wet-bulb temperatures at indoor and outdoor neighborhoods in Ahmedabad and Surat.
Urban Densification drives nocturnal warming in India’s Major Cities
This study investigates how urban growth modes drive nocturnal heat intensification across Indian cities
- Urban densification drives stronger nocturnal surface Urban Heat Island (UHI) intensification than horizontal expansion across four Indian megacities.
- Nighttime heat accumulation is controlled by urban morphology; densification increases building heights and impervious fraction, trapping longwave radiation in deep street canyons.
- LCZ-based urban trajectory framework enables explicit attribution of decadal temperature changes to urban expansion vs. densification at 375 m spatial resolution.
CONTINUED FOREST PROTECTION MUST BE CORE TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
- Marginal lands are now being used for crop production to feed an ever-growing population.
- Agriculture productivity must increase to meet demand, intensification rather than intensification.
- Currently, an urgent need exists for information to maximize yield based on land capabilities to mitigate land degradation, improve productivity, and to alleviate food insecurity.
- NASA's role in Earth observation is essential for merging cutting-edge modeling with very high-resolution commercial data to inform the sustainability of current land use and food security.
- Long-term effects of a lack of land tenure rights can be addressed with multi-resolution remote sensing data to relieve land pressure and move toward sustainable management practices.
Village Sustainable Planning and its influence on tropical forestry outcomes in Guyana
CONTINUED FOREST PROTECTION MUST BE CORE TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
- Carbon payment mechanisms to incentive sustainable forest management have an impact on forest loss
- Analyses integrating remote sensing and socioeconomic data can quantify the effectiveness of Village Sustainability Planning program on forest and land use
- With the rise carbon payment mechanisms for forest conservation, urgent need for such analyses is needed to inform current and future sustainable planning
- NASA’s role in Earth observation is essential for measuring and monitoring global investments in carbon markets