Factoid/2020/04/06

Urban canyons can increase extreme weather damages

"If you’ve ever turned down a city street only to be blasted with air, you’ve stepped into what is known as an urban canyon. Much like their geological counterparts, urban canyons are gaps between two tall surfaces — in this case, buildings. The gusts they channel, however, have real implications. They can magnify a hurricane’s winds or increase a city’s air temperature depending on their arrangement — an arrangement known as city texture. The problem is, according to researchers at the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub), that current hazard mitigation practices don’t consider city texture. Consequently, they frequently underestimate damages, in some cases by as much as a factor of three." - Excerpt from MIT University

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