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Ulrike Passe, associate professor of architecture, leads a research team that received a one-year, $29,999 seed grant from the University of Iowa’s Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research (CGRER) for the research project “Extreme Heat Adaptation Strategies for Buildings and Neighborhoods in the Upper Midwest Using Novel Urban Energy Modeling Techniques.”

The goal of the project is to integrate a set of urban and suburban adaptation scenarios into a hybrid data-physics model developed by ISU’s sustainable cities group (led by Passe) that will support community preparedness for extreme heat events. The hybrid data-physics model assimilates weather, building and near-building microclimate data integrated with a building energy simulator to develop preliminary adaptation strategies for building interior conditions during real-time events applicable to the urban Midwest.

The project will refine this model and adds initial adaptation scenarios that will later be co-designed with the team’s community partners to acknowledge the needs and challenges of low-income populations who are especially vulnerable during extreme heat events. Co-PIs are Linda Shenk, associate professor of English; Bill Gutowski, professor of geological and atmospheric sciences; and Yuyu Zhou, assistant professor of geological and atmospheric sciences.