News

Researchers at Portland State University are examining the complex interactions among urban climate, air quality, and human activity, in order to help cities improve policies and advisory systems designed to reduce the severity of heat waves and episodes of poor air quality.

The project, "Complex Interactions Among Urban Climate, Air Quality, and Adaptive-Reactive Human Response," is funded by a $1.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation and runs from September 2004 though February 2009. The principal investigator is Prof. David Sailor, Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, along with Prof. Linda George, PSU Center for Science Education, and Prof. Jan Semenza, PSU School of Community Health, as well as researchers from other institutions.

The work will focus on two cities where climate and human response may be very different-Portland, Oregon, and Houston, Texas-in order to determine how people react to news of adverse weather conditions or health advisories, and how human response in turn affects urban climate and air quality. As part of the study, PSU will host an intensive four-week institute this summer for local high school teachers and their students, who will assist in gathering data for the project. Visit www.fuse.pdx.edu for more information.