While more and more people across the globe call cityscapes home, the urban environments must grow to meet the demands of the influx of workers and homebuyers.  Creating or sustaining these urban environments calls for densely packed buildings and paved roads.  These man made substances can be heated to temperatures much higher than vegetated surfaces, causing this heat to then be released to the surroundings, creating an urban heat island.  

 

        The increased air and surface temperatures have many negative implications for city residents, including increased air pollution and heat-related mortalitys among susceptible populations.  

 

        One of the best ways to study this urban heat island effect is with remote sensing, a process by which satellite or airborne sensors can detect differences in multiple qualities of urban environments across large areas, including surface temperature, amount of vegetated surface, and albedo, or the reflectivity of surfaces.  Using remote sensing, it is possible to better understand how the urban heat island effect behaves and how we can mitigate its effects.

 

        This website serves to provide the general public with information and resources to understand how the tools provided by remote sensing are used to study how city environments play a role in creating adverse conditions that affect the people that live there.