Tulane Engineering Forum

David J. Sailor, Ph.D.

Dr. Sailor received his Ph.D. in 1993 from the University of California at Berkeley where he conducted research as part of the Heat Island Project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Since 1993 he has been on the Engineering faculty at Tulane University where he continues to pursue research related to urban heat islands. He is active in the field of regional atmospheric modeling with applications in urban heat island and climate change research. His efforts in this area have resulted in numerous peer-reviewed publications and his appointment as the Director of the South Central Regional Center of the National Institute for Global Environmental Change (NIGEC). As director of this center Dr. Sailor coordinates a research program involving researchers at seven institutions in five states and an annual budget of more than $1M. He is a reviewer for a number of journals including the Journal of Heat Transfer, the Journal of Climate, Climate Research, and the Journal of Applied Meteorology. He serves on several committees for professional organizations including the Environmental Heat Transfer Committee of the American Society for Mechanical Engineers, and the International Program Committee for the Global Warming International Center.

Presentation Topic: Mitigating the Urban Heat Island to Improve Air Quality and Reduce Energy Consumption

By David J. Sailor, Ph.D.

Summary

The US Environmental Protection agency is interested in evaluating novel approaches to improving air quality in the nation's metropolitan areas. Cities with significant air quality problems have already picked much of the "low-hanging" fruit with respect to methods for improving air quality. Hence, there has been an increased interest lately in developing new methods for reducing tropospheric ozone concentrations. This interest has been fueled by the move toward the new 8-hour air quality standard which is expected to significantly impact a large number of metropolitan areas that have previously been in compliance with the one-hour ambient air quality standard. One approach to improving air quality involves reducing the magnitude of the urban heat island (i.e., reducing urban air temperatures). This can be accomplished through careful urban planning and through implementation of energy-efficient building practices, including the use of highly reflective urban surfaces and implementation of urban forestry programs. Cost-benefit analyses of these mitigation strategies is necessary prior to their widespread implementation. This presentation will focus on results from various field studies and large-scale modeling that shows significant potential for both improving air quality and reducing energy consumption in our cities.