Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Recent extreme weathers have made 2023 a special year for many Canadians: April's historical ice storm, May's early heatwave, June's worst wildfire, and July's surprising tornado. Climate change has led to prolonged, more frequent, intense heatwaves, creating unprecedented challenges for the economy, society, and human health. Heat-related mortality cases have been reported in 164 cities across 36 countries, most occurring inside buildings and in the mid-latitudes. Meanwhile, the world is increasingly aging, with 80% of elderlies living in low- and middle-income countries, and the number will nearly double by 2050. Seniors and low-income families are more vulnerable to overheating and climate change. Thus, Actions must be taken to identify the vulnerable communities, buildings, and populations and develop climate-resilient solutions for the Canadian building industry. This unique and timely DG project is thus proposed to focus on "building and urban microclimates" - the immediate surrounding environment around occupants and building clusters - where the close climate-building and climate-people interactions occur. Microclimate is directly linked to people's safety, health, and comfort, and energy loads of building clusters, in the form of microclimatic risks, e.g., violent winds for pedestrians and trees, power outages, indoor/outdoor overheating for vulnerable populations, and spread of pathogens among building flats. Harnessed well, this region could provide natural cooling energy from urban ventilation. The project aims to use both field measurements of indoor & outdoor conditions and advanced multiscale simulations for a better and fundamental understanding of microclimates, their close interactions with buildings, and better methods/tools for designs and operations. In the long term, this DG aims to create healthier, more enjoyable, and ecologically conscious urban ecosystems for all genders and age groups. It aims to foster collaborative efforts, influence policies, promote sustainable technologies, and highlight the significance of health and resilience aspects of building and urban microclimates, encouraging skills and expertise in urban sustainability and climate resilience through HQP training for a diverse workforce, interdisciplinary skill enhancement, global perspective & collaboration; community empowerment and capacity building; professional networking & growth; innovation in sustainable practices. In the short term, this DG undertakes 1) Model development and implementation, 2). Model verification and validation, and 3) Model application and exploration for the novel multiscale urban microclimate models and web platform; this DG plans to train 2 PhD and 3 Master students. Extensive datasets of future climate projections will be generated for selected municipal and remote locations. These datasets will then be used to verify and validate the multiscale microclimate models and explore more advanced models, such as AI applications.