The Technology
USAM is a GIS tool that facilitates and streamlines the generation of high-resolution urban shade maps. Shade maps visually inform users about street-level shade availability during the hot season, taking into account shade cast by buildings and trees. In places where heat stress is substantially exacerbated by exposure to solar radiation, shade maps effectively reveal high-resolution microclimatic weak spots, as well as significantly cool outdoor locations.
Shade maps can show the amount of shade for a certain time. Yet, for a better understanding of the cumulative effect of urban design on shade availability, shade maps use a daily Shade Index, which quantifies the proportion of solar radiation intercepted before reaching ground level during a typical summer day. The higher the Shade Index (between 0 and 1), the higher the shade provided by the design of an urban setting. Shade Index values can be calculated for any given area, though the most effective mapping focuses on shade quantification in street segments and neighborhoods.
Shade maps help understand the hierarchy of shade assets within a city and their allocation in different parts of the city. Combined with tree maps, they can also expose the dependence of outdoor shade on tree canopy cover and tree allocation, thus supporting planners with an evidence-based tool for allocating resources for improving shading conditions where they are most needed.
Advantages
– Streamlines the generation of urban-scale, high-resolution maps of shading conditions in street segments and open spaces by efficiently processing raw geographic mapping data available through public agencies
– The map generation process is much less resource-intensive than existing urban climate simulation tools since it enables users to produce a high-resolution mapping of outdoor shade for an entire city in a matter of a few workdays, depending on the city size, using a personal computer
Applications and Opportunities
– Creation of evidence-based climatic mapping to support strategic planning for urban heat mitigation
– Shade maps are essential for prioritizing climate actions by highlighting climatically vulnerable locations across the entire area of a city
– The resulting maps can be easily integrated into any 2D or 3D GIS system and can thus provide additional spatial insights against other data layers
Business Development Contacts