Abstract:

Urban heat and air pollution are significant challenges to our society, especially in the context of global climate change. Addressing these challenges requires coordinated efforts across various fields and a systems approach that considers the interactions between climate, air quality, and society. We develop and refine computational models to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness, co-benefits, and risks of engineering and policy solutions in Southern California to address heat and air quality challenges.

This first part of this seminar will focus on the effectiveness of adopting energy-saving solar reflective “cool” surfaces in mitigating urban heat, as well as their co-benefits and penalties on air quality. “Cool” surfaces alter the land cover properties in cities by increasing their reflectance, thereby reducing atmospheric temperatures. Using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and WRF-Chem models, we conducted the first study that systematically compared the climate and air quality effects of adopting “cool” walls and “cool” roofs in urban areas. Our findings informed the US Green Building council’s decision to give Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building credits for using “cool” walls.

The second part of the presentation will focus on my interdisciplinary and collaborative research on decarbonizing the energy and transportation sectors. I will present the Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study (LA100), in which we collaborated with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to estimate the air quality co-benefits of adopting renewable energy and electrification. I will also discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on port congestion and the resulting increase in emissions near the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Finally, I will discuss how my former team at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) developed mobile source emissions inventories with input from various stakeholders and helped shape several pioneering regulations in California.