Beat the heat: Virginia Tech team to study best ways to survive heat waves

Theo Lim, an assistant professor of urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech, is leading a research team studying ways that people can survive, adapt, and thrive through high temperatures and heat waves.

Each year, heat waves kill more Americans than any other natural disaster. Climate change has exacerbated the problem by creating measurably higher temperatures in areas of cities with fewer economic and social resources to mitigate the impacts of heat, according to Theo Lim, an assistant professor of urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech.
 
Lim is leading a multidisciplinary Virginia Tech research team that is partnering with the City of Roanoke to help residents survive, adapt, and thrive through high temperatures and heat waves.


The six-person team received a Stage 1 Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) Planning Grant, funded by the National Science Foundation. The challenge supports rapid implementation of community-driven, research-based pilot projects that address heat resilience priorities.


Naren Ramakrishnan, the Thomas L. Phillips Professor of Engineering at Virginia Tech and director of the director of the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, is one of the co-investigators of the project.  Read full story here.