NSF Award
2431395
The objective of this Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) project is to support research on designing and piloting innovative AI-empowered solutions to mitigate extreme heat risk in Tempe, AZ. Extreme heat is one of the leading causes of weather-related deaths, more than all other causes (except hurricanes) combined in the U.S. Preparation for and protection against heatwaves require networks of organizations working collaboratively to make resources available during heat emergencies. In Maricopa County, Arizona, which witnessed nearly the entirety of July 2023 with temperatures at or above 110°F, the Heat Relief Network partnership of municipalities, nonprofits, faith-based community, and businesses, provides lifesaving heat relief stations throughout the county. The city of Tempe similarly manages Resilience Hubs for the vulnerable population. To augment their success, the research team intends to introduce technological advances towards proactive heat resilience planning and human-centered energy efficient building operations while improving indoor air quality. A community-driven and multi-sector partnership approach facilitates identification of community practice, gaps, and critical challenges as well as transition of advanced building control into resilience enhancement in Arizona and beyond.<br/><br/>In Stage 1, the civic-academic team will: (1) identify community needs in the event of heatwaves; (2) enable convergent research across engineering, data science and AI, and social sciences; and (3) bridge academic research with community practices, with a special attention to under-resourced communities. The team will work closely with heat resilience networks operating cooling/respite centers to assess strategies for toolkit deployment, smart ventilation, and energy consumption monitoring. Key research questions relate to AI-based models to forecast the risk and determine the hours-of-the-safety; AI-empowered sensing technologies to monitor indoor environment quality for occupant wellbeing; and methods for minimizing electricity demands to alleviate potential overload from power grid as well as reduce operational costs of cooling centers. <br/><br/>This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program’s Track A. Climate and Environmental Instability - Building Resilient Communities through Co-Design, Adaption, and Mitigation and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
