I am a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow working at the Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena. My research interests are at the intersection of Complex Systems, Urban Meteorology, and Remote Sensing. I have a sustained interest in the complexity, inter-dependency, and dynamism of complex socio-technological urban systems, and am passionate about engineering smart, resilient cities. My doctoral thesis is focused on characterizing intra-urban complexity of the Urban Heat Island. Prior to my Ph.D., I obtained degrees in Civil and Architectural Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and Purdue respectively.

Doctoral Research Themes

Urban Heat Islands as an archipelago of Fractal intra-urban heat islets Surface Urban Heat Islands (SUHI) are traditionally quantified by a bulk metric of SUHI Intensity. However, cities are highly spatially heterogeneous and temperatures within vary widely. Inspired by the fractal nature of cities, we show for the first time, that for diverse cities across the world, SUHIs are fractal in nature. We analyze the SUHI as a collection of intra-urban heat islets and leverage the self-similarity to develop comprehensive metrics to quantify intra-urban thermal complexity. Read more: [Phys. Rev. E.] [SPIE Remote Sensing] [EarthArXiv Preprint] [Poster Summary]

Paradox of expansion vs densification for reducing extreme urban heat Given the heterogeneity of urban temperatures for various urban morphologies, what is the optimal spatial pattern to improve thermal comfort? Here, we build upon the multi-scale framework of intra-urban heat islets and investigate the impact of expansion (sprawl) vs densification of cities on the emergence of extreme heat islets. We find that a sprawling configuration is favorable for reducing the mean temperature of a city. However, for the same mean SUHI intensity, it also results in higher local thermal extremes. Read more: [Scientific Reports] [EarthArXiv Preprint]

Influence of heat waves on intra-urban heat islets Heat waves are known further exacerbate the urban heat islands. I am currently working in collaboration with NOAA’s Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies (NOAA-CESSRST) to explore the impact of such heat waves on the dynamics of intra-urban heat islets and the role of complex urban morphology in this interaction. I am using a combination of remotely sensed observations as well as the Weather Research Forecast (WRF) model to simulate the heat waves of 2018 experienced by three major megacities - Paris, Los Angeles, and New Delhi

Master’s Research Themes

Resilience Analysis of Climate Proofing strategies of cities Cities are at the forefront of climate change impacts and face a growing burden of adaptation to ensuing natural hazards. In response, the global network of C-40 Cities have adopted various strategies to “climate proof” themselves. Here, we use the Stability Landscape model of a ball-in-a-bowl, adapted from Walker et. al. (2004), to investigate the top 100 strategies of 2015 from an Urban Resilience viewpoint. With this model, we are able to demonstrate the need and possible pathways for adaptation to climate extremes in a more comprehensive way. Get in touch for further details: [View Poster] [Presentation]

Impact of spatial organization of Local Climate Zones on Urban Surface temperatures Local Climate Zones (LCZ) are an urban land cover land use classification system that help standardize methods of observation and documentation in urban heat island studies. It is based on a random forest classification workflow implemented in SAGA GIS. I worked on developing LCZ maps for diverse cities across the world. While there is a point-to-point correlation between the LCZ classes and Urban Temperatures, the spatial neighborhoods of each LCZs strongly influence the temperature distributions as well. Read more: [Poster] [BAMS Article]