A unique integration

The goal for this year is to refine data collection about human energy behavior through action projects and novel game-based surveys. This will serve as input into quantitative, agent-based models and refined, urban-energy models regarding urban microclimate and vegetation.

The data-science faculty on the team will then connect all these different scales through mathematical models.

Over the longer term, we will develop a novel, data-driven, human-food-energy-water system modeling approach to integrate environment (water and energy) impacts from urban built environments with urban food production.

The approach is unique because it connects physical and human systems to models (agent-based models, computational fluid dynamics, urban energy models, economic models) "on multiple scales through unexplored ways of data modeling." It will allow cities to do "what if" simulations to make decisions.

Our objective is to create decision-making support systems that will help cities and their residents translate this research into actions — new policies, incentives for individual behaviors and community resilience.