JST: SCC-PG: Understanding Heat Resiliency via Physiological, Mental, and Behavioral Health Factors for Indoor and Outdoor Urban Environments

暴露在酷热中对人类的健康和福祉有害。随着城市的发展，高温事件的发生率和强度都在增加，在将对日常活动的干扰降至最低的同时管理人口热暴露正成为城市规划者和居民面临的日益严峻的挑战。高温对老年人、幼儿和低收入家庭等弱势群体构成了特别大的潜在风险。这笔智能互联社区规划赠款支持创建一个由移动系统、计算成像和传感、城市气候信息学和经济学领域的研究人员组成的协作工作组，与社区成员、城市官员、城市规划者和设计师的主要利益相关者一起，调查提高城市人口抗热能力的潜在战略。该项目将与来自日本的研究人员和社区成员合作，寻求确定、颁布和促进在文化背景内和跨文化背景下减少高温风险和恢复能力的战略，同时还将调查当地文化因素在个人和社会层面传播和采用这种战略的重要性。这项工作将跨越美国和日本，这两个城市的城市都面临着与高温暴露相关的不同问题。该项目将支持旅行、初步研究和与社区合作伙伴的研讨会论坛。这项计划拨款的结果将包括用于测量热影响的生理因素的试点研究和数据收集，以及一个多尺度框架，用于将美国和日本的热弹性的生理、行为/心理和社会经济/文化因素联系起来。该项目旨在确定并协助利益攸关方应对社区高危人群因极端高温而面临的挑战。特别是，该项目计划并建立未来研究的能力，旨在研究(1)热应激和暴露的生理标记，利用基于物理学的计算成像和移动健康传感技术，以及(2)暴露在高温条件下的个人的心理和行为模型，以及它们如何相互作用。结果将被用来为暴露在极端高温条件下的个人开发以用户为中心的热舒适模型。这既包括由于温度和湿度等可量化的环境条件造成的生理影响，也包括根据衣着、活动水平、既往暴露历史和经验对个人耐热性的主观评估。该项目的一个关键重点是研究美国和日本社区的这些因素。这包括在三个城市规划和试点初步数据收集工作：马萨诸塞州阿默斯特、亚利桑那州凤凰城和日本大阪地区。在传感器开发、热感应、移动健康、经济学和行为建模以及城市气候和基础设施方面具有专业知识的研究人员将合作，以了解有关该应用领域的挑战和解决方案需求的关键研究问题。这项研究将与美国和日本三个社区的关键利益攸关方进行互动，并将从研究中收集到的见解将与社区分享，以制定建设气候智能城市的有效战略。研讨会和合作活动将加强国际机构之间的研究联系，包括能力建设和未来综合研究的规划，以解决美国和日本的耐热问题。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Exposure to extreme heat is harmful to human health and well-being. As cities grow and both the incidence and intensity of high-temperature events increases, the management of population heat exposure while minimizing disruption to day-to-day activities is becoming a growing challenge among urban planners and residents alike. High temperatures pose especially large potential risks for vulnerable populations such as the elderly, young children, and low-income families. This Smart and Connected Communities Planning Grant supports the creation of a collaborative working group of researchers in mobile systems, computational imaging and sensing, urban climate informatics, and economics alongside key stakeholders of community members, city officials, urban planners, and designers to investigate potential strategies to increase heat resiliency in urban populations. In collaboration with researchers and community members from Japan, this project will seek to identify, promulgate, and promote strategies for heat-risk reduction and resiliency - both within and across cultural contexts - while also investigating the importance of local cultural factors in the spread and adoption of such strategies at the individual and societal levels. This work will span both the United States and Japan, two populations whose cities suffer different issues related to heat exposure. This project will support travel, preliminary research studies, and workshop forums with community partners. The outcomes of this planning grant will include pilot studies and data collection for measuring physiological factors for heat effects, as well as a multiscale framework for linking physiological, behavioral/mental, and socioeconomical/cultural factors for heat resiliency across the United States and Japan. This project aims to identify and assist stakeholders in tackling challenges facing at-risk populations in communities due to extreme heat. In particular, the project plans and builds capacity for future research aimed to study (1) physiological markers for heat stress and exposure, leveraging techniques from physics-based computational imaging and mobile health sensing, as well as (2) mental and behavioral models for individuals exposed to heat conditions, and how they interact with one another. Results will be used to develop user-centric thermal comfort models for individuals exposed to extreme heat conditions. This includes both physiological effects due to quantifiable environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity, but also subjective assessment of an individual’s tolerance to heat based on clothing, activity level, past exposure history and experiences. A key focus of this project is to study these factors across communities in the United States and Japan. This includes planning and piloting preliminary data collection efforts for three cities: Amherst, Massachusetts; Phoenix, Arizona; and the greater Osaka region, Japan. Researchers with expertise in sensor development, heat sensing, mobile health, economics and behavioral modeling, and urban climate and infrastructure will collaborate to understand key research questions about the challenges and need for solutions in this application domain. This research will interact with key stakeholders in the three communities across the United States and Japan, and insights gleaned from the research will be shared with the community to develop effective strategies to build climate-smart cities. Workshops and collaborative activities will strengthen research ties between the international institutions, including capacity building and planning for integrative research in the future to tackle heat resiliency in both the United States and Japan.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.