Urban and environmental analysis, modeling and simulations

Temperatures in cities continue to rise as global warming progresses. In Tokyo, temperatures have risen by almost 3.0℃ over the past 100 years. If global temperatures rise by 1℃ to 4℃ over the next century (according to a report by IPCC), there is concern that temperatures in major urban regions may rise even more. This trend will be more pronounced in East and Southeast Asia where there are numerous, vastly-congested cities with populations exceeding 10 million, such as China.

Alleviating the thermal environment of a city (heat island countermeasures) by controlling health hazards, such as heat stroke, and infectious disease measures will improve the quality of the urban environment from the perspective of public health. This will also help reduce energy consumption over a wide area, so plans for the creation of cool spots and “breeze corridors” that help lower temperatures are vital.

Along with plans to improve urban thermal environments, NSRI is developing quantitative evaluation techniques and visualization tools at the micro and macro levels using urban thermal environmental simulations. This model is already in use for smart city planning both in Japan and abroad.