UHI Summer Research Fellowship

2023 Urban Heat Island Fellows

In 2022, NCA was awarded a three-year New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Community Impact Grant to facilitate an educational research program analyzing the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI) around Newtown Creek. During the program, New Yorkers are given the opportunity to design their own studies regarding UHI in and around Newtown to explore field-work practice, and the use of scientific inquiry towards a real-world application and context. Anyone 18-25 years old may apply. Ideal candidates have an experience with increased urban heat, an interest in or relationship to Newtown Creek and the surrounding community, and have not completed a bachelor’s degree. 

The UHI is particularly intense in industrial areas in part because of the nature (and needs) of the industrial area. Buildings, roads, and other paved spaces absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than planted landscapes do. Air thick with exhaust and pollutants also trap heat (known as the Greenhouse Effect), increasing ambient air temperatures in regions with high car and truck density. These, and other factors, can lead industrial areas to have daytime ambient air temperatures 1–7°F higher than outlying areas, and ambient nighttime temperatures 2-5°F higher.

As global temperatures rise and local weather patterns swing wildly, summer heat waves have become the norm. According to the New York City Panel on Climate Change’s 2019 report, the annual number of days over 90°F could more than triple in the city by the 2050s. It is impossible to comfortably work or live in communities prone to elevated temperatures without air conditioning during extreme temperature events. We are concerned by the negative health and quality of life impacts associated with urban heat because they impact us and our neighbors living and working around the Creek.

As research on climate change expands, human health and other risks relating to increased urban temperatures are standing out as a critical planning and design problem for all cities. Officials and agencies at all levels are working to come up with solutions to the problem. With fewer cooling centers and green spaces in black and brown neighborhoods, the 2022 Health Department heat mortality report found that black New Yorkers are twice as likely to die from heat than white residents. Brooklyn and Queens had the highest numbers of heat-related deaths of the five boroughs between 2011 and 2020.

Newtown Creek and its neighboring industrial business zones are prime locations to study the effect of Urban Heat Island. The overwhelming amount of concrete and gray infrastructure in IBZs adjacent to the waterway has a direct impact on human health and water quality. The research conducted by our summer fellows will help NCA and community members understand the current state of UHI in these respective communities, driving the formulation of community solutions to strengthen the network of green infrastructure around the creek.

2023: Maspeth IBZ

Our 2023 fellows, Alexis Czajkowski, Darius Korin, Mohamed Nassar, Edsel Peralta, and Sophia Zhao, studied the effects of Urban Heat Island on the Industrial Business Zone in Maspeth, Queens. This IBZ is one of the largest in NYC, home to hundreds of small businesses and thousands of jobs. With historic potentially responsible party sites along the shoreline and one of the largest combined sewer overflows in the waterway, the Maspeth IBZ actively contributes to water quality issues in this branch of the creek as well as the environmental health impacts from UHI. Check out individual presentations and the video below.

Thank you to everyone who helped with our 2023 Fellowship: Maspeth Industrial Business Association, Leo Bachinger (NYS DEC), Kara Schlichting (Queens College), Nathan Kensinger, Brandon Cappellari and Mallory Taub (Urban Design Forum), NYC DEP, North Brooklyn Neighbors, and Hunters Point Parks Conservancy.

Sophia Zhao: Understanding Capacity for Green Infrastructure

Alexis Czajkowski + Mohamed Nassar: What Opportunities for Green Infrastructure Exist in Maspeth IBZ?

Darius Korin: The Urban Heat Island and Soil Degradation

Edsel Peralta: Examining Green Infrastructure Connectivity in the Maspeth IBZ

2022: LIC + Sunnyside

Our 2022 Fellows, Shakhawat Shaimoon, Tara Fletcher, Yaz Wilkerson, Ari Batu Rivera, and Jonathan Belair, joined us during the summer of 2022 to study the Long Island City / Sunnyside region from the Pulaski to the Kosciusko. Neighborhoods open to study included LIC, Blissville, and Sunnyside. Regional boundaries were: 43rd ave to the north, the Creek to the south, 43rd st to the east and 11th st/Pulaski offramp to the west.

Thank you to everyone who helped with our 2022 Fellowship: LIC Partnership, The Highline Network, Smiling Hogshead Ranch, Hunters Point Parks Conservancy, NYC Council Land use, LDEO, and LaGuardia Community College.

View the Final 2022 Presentations