A spatial decision support system for identifying heat vulnerability based on a comprehensive energy budget model and multi-criteria decision analysis in Oklahoma City, OK

Team: Anni Yang (Department of Geography and Sustainability, the University of Oklahoma); Changjie Cai (Hudson College of Public Health, the University of Oklahoma); Dongying Li (Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M University); Zhe Zhang (Department of Geography, Texas A&M University)

Executive Summary:

This project will be achieved through accomplishing three thrusts: Heat Exposure Index (HEI) development (Thrust I), Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) development (Thrust II), and multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) platform development and application (Thrust III). In Thrust I, we use a comprehensive energy budget model, the Comfort Formula (COMFA) model, to generate an innovative HEI, which will include all the climatic, environmental, human physical, and physiological parameters as inputs. Two tasks are included: HEI data acquisition, and HEI development and publishing. In Thrust II, Oklahoma City 2015-2020 HVIs are developed based on a combination of sensitivity, exposure, and adaptive capacity. Three tasks are included: HVI data acquisition, HVI development and publishing, and HVI validation. In Thrust III, We develop an MCDM platform for heat-vulnerable communities to generate community-driven HVIs with two tasks: platform development, community workshop in heat-vulnerable neighborhoods for heat stress concerns, and community co-design.