Global stakeholders should use AI to mitigate impact of heat islands in cities – TechCrunch

If human societies do nothing, in just a few decades, the planet could warm to levels it hasn't reached in at least 34 million years, leading to more melting glaciers and floods than ever before -- as well as the dire effect of urban heat waves. In 2021, in the U.S. alone, there were already 18 extreme climate-related disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion each, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. When looking at the world's natural calamities on a consequence and frequency scale, floods and earthquakes have a more devastating effect on people and property, but they occur less frequently than heat waves, which generally take the form of urban heat islands (UHIs). These are also known as heat pockets, which are found across cities' downtown areas, where temperatures are higher than the peripheries. With urbanized areas warming up fast, many more populations globally are bound to face the deadly consequences of the heat-island effect, highlighting urban public health disparities.