TY - JOUR
T1 - Climate change and infrastructure risk
T2 - Indoor heat exposure during a concurrent heat wave and blackout event in Phoenix, Arizona
AU - Stone, Brian
AU - Mallen, Evan
AU - Rajput, Mayuri
AU - Broadbent, Ashley
AU - Krayenhoff, E. Scott
AU - Augenbroe, Godfried
AU - Georgescu, Matei
N1 - Funding Information:
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number 1520803 . Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - Concurrent with a rapid rise in temperatures within US cities, the frequency of regional electric grid system failures is also rising in recent decades, resulting in a growing number of blackouts during periods of extreme heat. As mechanical air conditioning is a primary adaptive technology for managing rising temperatures in cities, we examine in this paper the impact of a prolonged blackout on heat exposure in residential structures during heat wave conditions, when air conditioning is most critical to human health. Our approach combines a regional climate modeling system with a building energy model to simulate how a concurrent heat wave and grid failure event impacts residential building-interior temperatures across Phoenix. Our results find a substantial increase in heat exposure across residential buildings in response to the loss of electrical power and mechanical cooling systems, with such an event potentially exposing more than one million residents to hazardous levels of heat. We further find the installation of cool roofing to measurably lower the risk of extreme heat exposure for residents of single-story structures.
AB - Concurrent with a rapid rise in temperatures within US cities, the frequency of regional electric grid system failures is also rising in recent decades, resulting in a growing number of blackouts during periods of extreme heat. As mechanical air conditioning is a primary adaptive technology for managing rising temperatures in cities, we examine in this paper the impact of a prolonged blackout on heat exposure in residential structures during heat wave conditions, when air conditioning is most critical to human health. Our approach combines a regional climate modeling system with a building energy model to simulate how a concurrent heat wave and grid failure event impacts residential building-interior temperatures across Phoenix. Our results find a substantial increase in heat exposure across residential buildings in response to the loss of electrical power and mechanical cooling systems, with such an event potentially exposing more than one million residents to hazardous levels of heat. We further find the installation of cool roofing to measurably lower the risk of extreme heat exposure for residents of single-story structures.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100787
DO - 10.1016/j.uclim.2021.100787
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100813160
SN - 2212-0955
VL - 36
JO - Urban Climate
JF - Urban Climate
M1 - 100787
ER -