Mapping Heat Data: Community Knowledge, Inequality, and Mathematical Models

November 20th 1000-1500 10 East 2.55

We are part of a themed semester focusing on

Environmental and Climate Resilience being delivered in collaboration by the Centre for Doctoral Training in Statistical Applied Mathematics (SAMBa) and the Institute for Mathematical Innovation (IMI)

See here for more details of all the workshops that are part of the themed semester.

Mapping Heat Data:
Community Knowledge, Inequality & Mathematical Models

What is the Challenge?

As periods of extreme heat become more frequent and severe, there is growing recognition that exposure to heat, and the capacity to adapt to it, are unevenly distributed across communities. Current approaches to heat-risk mapping typically combine environmental, demographic, and socio-economic indicators but often rely on aggregated datasets and simplified representations of communities that can overlook important local contexts and sources of resilience.

The Workshop

This workshop will bring together researchers from mathematical sciences, social sciences, engineering, health alongside local policy officials to explore how community knowledge can complement and enrich existing approaches to modelling heat risk and resilience.

We will examine how heat exposure, risk and resilience are represented within these datasets and identify dimensions of adaptation and resilience that may be absent, obscured, or difficult to capture through conventional indicators. Alongside these datasets, we will consider examples of community-derived knowledge and locally situated evidence, including insights from community engagement activities in Bath and information relating to factors such as tree canopy cover, green space, cooling spaces, housing characteristics, and neighbourhood features that influence thermal comfort.

Working in interdisciplinary teams, we will explore how environmental, population and community-based evidence might be combined to improve representations of heat risk and resilience. Particular attention will be given to mathematical and computational challenges associated with data integration, uncertainty, scale and representation. The workshop will generate a small number of prototype research ideas and collaborations, including an initial framework for incorporating community knowledge into future approaches to heat-risk mapping and adaptation planning.

When? Friday 20th November 1000-1500

Where? School of Management, 10 East 2.55

Research Updates

"Adaptation must move from the margins into mainstream decision-making. These impacts are not a future concern. They are happening now, and this is a new operating environment for UK nations"

Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair, National Heat Risk Commission

https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/publication/a-heat-circuit-breaker-for-the-uk/