CAREER: Green Engineering of Urban Areas

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). 0847054 Kleissl While green engineering measures such as artificial turf, reflective roof coatings, and urban forests have proven advantageous in conserving resources in individual buildings, holistic modeling of urban meteorology and engineered systems at the physical process level is lacking. Building upon engineering tools from fluid mechanics, heat transfer and wireless embedded systems, this research will improve the linkage of these processes and quantify indirect effects to catalyze smart growth and sustainable urban engineering. The results are targeted to provide a scientific basis for engineering and optimization tools that support economic and public decision making. Multi-scale modeling from the building scale, to the neighborhood and city scale will be conducted. On the building and neighborhood scale, advances in modeling the heat and momentum exchange between urban canopy and atmosphere, and the effect of atmospheric stability on dispersion in urban environments are to result from this research. The educational program will include collaboration with K-12 environmental science teachers and environmental clubs across San Diego County.