{"id":213935,"date":"2022-07-14T11:40:20","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T15:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=213935"},"modified":"2022-07-14T14:43:36","modified_gmt":"2022-07-14T18:43:36","slug":"amid-climate-change-sph-researchers-study-chelseas-heat-island","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2022\/amid-climate-change-sph-researchers-study-chelseas-heat-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid Climate Change, SPH Researchers Study Chelsea&#8217;s &#8216;Heat Island&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin sphnews-block-editorial-leadin has-media-focus-center-middle\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">heat exposure<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmid Climate Change, SPH Researchers Study Chelsea&#8217;s &#8216;Heat Island&#8217;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">Madeleine Scammell and Patricia Fabian are studying air and ground temperatures in Chelsea, Mass., an urban &#8220;heat island&#8221; that&#8217;s getting hotter from climate change.<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar sphnews-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">July 14, 2022<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/authors\/rich-barlow\/\">Rich Barlow<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p><em>A version of this article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2022\/bu-researchers-study-chelsea-heat-island-climate-change\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">originally appeared in BU Today<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The usual urban symphony\u2014background traffic din, a man\u2019s bullhorn of a voice pontificating about something or other\u2014is in full swing as&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/profile\/madeleine-scammell\/\">Madeleine Scammell<\/a>&nbsp;climbs a stepladder by a tree in Chelsea\u2019s Bellingham Square. Amid the lower branches, she fastens a white device that looks like a spiral lightbulb, assisted by Alina McIntyre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/bumadeleine-1-683x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-213979\" width=\"311\" height=\"465\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/bumadeleine-1-683x1024.jpeg 683w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/bumadeleine-1-667x1000.jpeg 667w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 311px) 100vw, 311px\" \/><figcaption>Madeleine Scammell, associate professor of environmental health. Photo by Rich Barlow.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>After two and a half years of such work, Scammell (SPH\u201908), a School of Public Health associate professor of environmental health, and her street acrobatics are a familiar sight to many in this majority Latin American city of 41,000. As she and her PhD student McIntyre (SPH\u201925) walk to outfit another tree with a sensor, an acquaintance greets them with a friendly&nbsp;\u201cMucho trabajo\u201d&nbsp;(Lots of work).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSiempre\u201d&nbsp;(Always), laughs Scammell, who with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/profile\/m-fabian\/\">Patricia Fabian<\/a>, also an SPH environmental health associate professor, is studying temperatures in one of the hottest places in Massachusetts\u2014and ways to dial down the thermostat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her device will record the temperature every 10 seconds and send the data to researchers\u2019 phones. \u201cBellingham Square is among the hotter hot pits in the city,\u201d she says. You\u2019d never know that on this late spring evening, cooled by shade and a gentle breeze blowing. But the bulk of Chelsea is \u201cone of the worst\u201d heat islands in the state, Scammell says\u2014\u201cheat island\u201d meaning a locale with hotter-than-average air and land temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With climate change, it\u2019s getting even hotter. Enter the&nbsp;C-Heat Project, teaming SPH and&nbsp;Greenroots, a Chelsea environmental and public health nonprofit. Led by Scammell and Fabian, the project is stringing more than 20 heat sensors on trees to track temperatures around the city. Municipal officials are part of the project\u2019s advisory team, and parallel to the research, they\u2019ve designated a \u201ccool block\u201d not far from Bellingham Square that will become a laboratory for throwing all but the kitchen sink at the heat problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/buscammell-1-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-213982\" width=\"323\" height=\"431\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/buscammell-1-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/buscammell-1-477x636.jpeg 477w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/buscammell-1-500x667.jpeg 500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/buscammell-1-755x1007.jpeg 755w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/buscammell-1-750x1000.jpeg 750w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/buscammell-1-600x800.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/buscammell-1-675x900.jpeg 675w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/buscammell-1.jpeg 1001w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 323px) 100vw, 323px\" \/><figcaption>Scammell and coresearchers are placing 20-plus heat sensors around Chelsea, one of the hottest places in Massachusetts. Photo by Rich Barlow.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The city planted 47 elm, crabapple, cherry, and hawthorn trees to shade the stretch. It\u2019s redoing sidewalks with&nbsp;porous pavement&nbsp;that captures rain, evaporation of which may reduce the heat island effect. Lighter gray asphalt will replace its black cousin on the road. There are plans to make a vacant lot greener and cooler and to install a white roof on a nearby Boys &amp; Girls Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chelsea\u2019s mercury can soar 20 to 50 degrees higher than in tree-shaded suburbs; paved land surfaces have sizzled at 140 degrees on July days. Summertime living not only isn\u2019t easy, it\u2019s potentially deadly when it gets that hot. Dehydration, heat stroke, lung impairments such as asthma, and&nbsp;kidney disease&nbsp;can afflict the medically vulnerable. Chelsea\u2019s deputy fire chief told WBUR, the University\u2019s NPR station, that medical calls spike during summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a health toll to living in an urban heat island,\u201d says Scammell. \u201cPeople\u2019s experience of heat vastly differs, and having resources to cope makes a huge difference that can be life or death. And the most vulnerable people\u2014like those who live in Chelsea and East Boston\u2014don\u2019t often have those resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe know that the black tarmac pavement contributes\u201d to the heat, she says. \u201cThe flat, black rubber roofs on buildings contribute. [Buildings] have to have coolant capacity inside themselves [air conditioners], and that energy creates more heat. So you see the exhaust of the AC from City Hall goes right out into the square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd we\u2019re driving in our air-conditioned vehicles, and all of the particles emitted from the tailpipes are heat-trapping particles that contribute to the greenhouse effect and the urban heat island effect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/buheat2-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-213985\" width=\"478\" height=\"618\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/buheat2-1.jpeg 612w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2022\/07\/buheat2-1-491x636.jpeg 491w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 478px) 100vw, 478px\" \/><figcaption>When the official mercury hits 100 degrees, much of Chelsea suffers even hotter temperatures. Map courtesy of City of Chelsea.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The role of air conditioning is \u201ca delicate balance,\u201d McIntyre says, as that coolant is a public health need that low-income residents of heat islands often can\u2019t afford. Scammell says the city gave away free air conditioners last summer; 1,000 people entered a lottery that culled 200 lucky winners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scammell acknowledges that with so many cooling Band-Aids being applied to the \u201ccool block,\u201d it might be difficult to parse which ones work better than others. But the main thrust of the study is data collection: \u201cIf we were trying to determine the efficacy of just pervious paver interventions, we would have to have designed the study with that intention from the beginning,\u201d she says. \u201cBut this was more like, let\u2019s characterize the hot areas in the city, and then think about solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think we\u2019ll be able to see the effect of the trees over time. And trees around the city have been planted by the [state], and they\u2019re also interested in the cooling effect of those trees\u2026 Really, the jury\u2019s out on a lot of these things, whether or not they do actually reduce the need for other cooling interventions like the use of AC, or if they improve the experience for people walking down the street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, ideas like planting trees may not work in regions of the country where water shortages are an issue, she says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the climate warms, siphoning off some heat from heat islands is preoccupying other cities besides Chelsea.&nbsp;Phoenix&nbsp;created a municipal office to mitigate potentially lethal heat, a move&nbsp;some experts advocate&nbsp;for all cities. A Norwell, Mass., filmmaking team is including Scammell\u2019s and Fabian\u2019s work in a&nbsp;documentary&nbsp;about climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The C-Heat Project was funded with $600,000 from Boston\u2019s&nbsp;Barr Foundation. Scammell and Fabian are seeking funding for two additional years of data collection. \u201cWe\u2019re looking at\u2026what drives the extreme heat in the heart of this urban area,\u201d Scammell says. \u201cWe\u2019re going to continue monitoring to see if there\u2019s a change in temperature along the cool block, in an effort to take some of the burn off of Chelsea.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A version of this article originally appeared in BU Today. The usual urban symphony\u2014background traffic din, a man\u2019s bullhorn of a voice pontificating about something or other\u2014is in full swing as&nbsp;Madeleine Scammell&nbsp;climbs a stepladder by a tree in Chelsea\u2019s Bellingham Square. Amid the lower branches, she fastens a white device that looks like a spiral [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15205,"featured_media":213990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"heat exposure","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[1538,3889,2366,2261,2070,3796,3795,3709,3887],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3529,3531,3540],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[324,226],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/213935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213935"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/213935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213992,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/213935\/revisions\/213992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213935"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=213935"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=213935"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=213935"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=213935"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=213935"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=213935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}