How civil scientific efforts help researchers expand their scope: a survey of heat mapping case – Sierra Nevada ally – Sierra Nevada

During a particularly hot summer day in August 2024, more than 100 people went on pre -planned routes in the Truckee Meadows area, collecting thousands of data points, measuring the temperature and humidity of specific, coordinated hourly intervals. Equipped with sensors and magnets with armor that collected measurements every second, volunteers helped researchers receive data that were later used to create urban heat models throughout the region throughout the day.

Five months later, researchers from the Reno-Spark thermal Mapping Project shared the data received and the modeled temperature cards that help illustrate how heat varies throughout the city at different times.

“The Results Show That Temperatures Vary Significantel in Our Area, Which We Already Knew, But Now We have a Cleare Spati Understanding of IT,” Says Project Leader Raphy at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR).

“This is useful as heat has become a growing care for public health-heating waves and extreme heat events are the leading cause of direct mortality associated with time,” Albright said.

This initiative was led by the State Climate Cabinet in Nevada at UNR, with the support of scientists at the Institute for Research Researchers (DRI), as well as volunteers from more than a dozen local and tribal government organizations and public groups.

According to Albright, the detailed results would not be possible without the help of community volunteers and the measurements of the land they provided from the 200 square miles study area.

“This information will allow us to achieve our ultimate goals-better decision-making, create safer communities and protect our neighbors,” he said.

The role of civil science

Albright believes that the use of the power of volunteers in the community is valuable for two main reasons: it facilitates data collection and enables people to engage in something related to their community, to learn about science, to participate in it and yes feel actions.

“I think many people today feel quite buried by the challenges there. But when it gets involved, it helps people feel more energy and positive about things, “he said.

This project is not the first – or just – a person who takes advantage of this approach to science. Several other initiatives, such as the mountain rain of Dri or snow and live snow projects, internalistic, coconuts, the big sunflower and eBird project, also include the public in their data collection and take advantage of it.

For example, new studies of Dr. Goo Yu and a team of mountain rain or snow team of DRI have found that community observations can improve the weather forecasts models that often fight for accurately distinguishing between rain and snow, especially at temperatures Over 2 ° C. The mountain rain or snow project has collected a set of data from 39,680 observations of precipitation phases in the United States and claims that the collection of data led by citizens contributes to common discoveries.

“Unlike the commonly used methods for determining the phases of rainfall, visual observations of precipitation phases provide an effective and accurate way of monitoring the rain and snow models,” the study said.

Simply put, Citizen Science has proven to be valuable to research, as it expands the scope of large-scale real-time data collection, promotes public engagement and enables communities to participate and take action. Online sources, such as Scistarter and the Society for Science, offer opportunities for the participation of interested volunteers.

The project to map the heat

Nevada is one of the fastest warming countries in the country, with Renault and Las Vegas being qualified as the first and second fastest warming cities. In 2024, the heat was attributed to at least in part to the death of 526 people in Clark County.

“Urban areas are experiencing what is called the effect of the urban heat island. This phenomenon causes urban areas to have slightly higher temperatures than their environment. Although I say “lightly”, this can be enough to push temperatures on dangerous thresholds, “Albright explained.

The effect of the urban heat island describes the tendency of urbanized areas to be cooled due to the predominance of concrete surfaces and the lack of trees and other vegetation.

In addition, temperatures in cities can vary dramatically, which is why this type of project is required. The results of this civil scientific project can provide information that guarantees both the legislature and the public as possible, while raising awareness of heat and its dangers.

For example, the study found that the valley temperatures were 20 ° F more heating than in the higher regions of the elevation along the Rose Mountain Highway. The results also show changes in the valley temperature, where multi-lane roads and parking lots, for example, registered higher temperatures than areas with more trees.

All this is important as heat intersects with many areas, including homes, transport and public health, and is higher risks for communities that are more exposed or less resources to mitigate this exposure. Understanding this can help neighbors more affected by high heat.

To this end, the researchers have created a “digital twin” of the Reno-Sparks region to simulate various heat mitigation strategies to evaluate their cooling effects.

“Digital twin is a virtual model of the city with high accuracy of the city, which we design to present the morphology of the established environment, as well as the elements forcing urban overheating, including meteorological models, energy consumption and green infrastructure,” explains John Mejgie, associate Professor of Climatology at Dri.

This model allows researchers to identify and plan better solutions for the city by simulating the interactions between the weather and the cityscape. Some of the solutions include white and green roofs, increased trees coating, increased irrigation, climate architecture correction and energy consumption.

“The effectiveness of these solutions varies depending on factors such as regional climate, city size and urban characteristics. Our digital twin allows us to evaluate the potential for cooling different strategies, assessing their impact at different intensity and in combination with other measures, “added Mejia.

But the results of the study also affect the real region in the real world. Brian Befort is the Washoe County Resistance Manager, which is part of the Community Coalition behind the project. He said the county plans to use the information collected by scientists and the community to work on solutions in the face of the growing heat in the region.

“As we think of strategies for dealing with heat and other impacts from the changing climate – such as planting trees and buildings for buildings – the availability of accurate data at the neighborhood levels helps us a lot to direct these interventions to places where they will have the maximum Benefit, “Befort said.

The results of this study, said Befort, would not be possible without the hours of time spent by volunteer civic scientists.