There is new, heightened awareness, on a global scale, of the damage that humanity is wreaking upon Earth. There is a realization that we need to adapt and transition to a sustainable economy where we are fully informed about the impact of our lifestyles, our industry and our expectations on our planet.
The amount of heat energy we produce has become a real cause for concern and commercial premises alone are responsible for the vast majority of wasted energy. Notably, the enormity of the industrial and residential heat that is being produced is causing a phenomenon called the Urban Heat Island effect and the financial and environmental impact is something that businesses and organizations must be aware of and do more to tackle.
The Urban Heat Island Effect
Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) occur when the average temperature of a distinct area is higher than the local norm. The areas can be limited to a city block or extend over larger districts. This difference in temperature is usually more easily detected at night than in the day, when there is a greater difference in temperature. The main cause of UHIs is the composition of the land surfaces. Increasingly, large areas are being covered by asphalt and tarmac, and buildings are being constructed that absorb sunlight then radiate heat, thus heightening the overall temperature of the area. The surface construction, covering and even color can have a significant influence on the contribution to the local UHI.
With nowhere for this heat to dissipate and the natural processes of evaporation and transpiration reduced due to the loss of green areas, heatwaves are more intense on UHIs. This is because the cooling effect usually felt at night is not evident in cities. With no cooling effect, inhabitants of cities are more at risk of medical conditions such as heat exhaustion and heatstroke or even death. The UHI production can have a runaway effect in that localized hot environment requires air conditioning to be more active and consequently producing more outdoor heat.
Energy is being used (and wasted) in these buildings that are very often business premises and utilize energy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Waste energy from buildings costs US$300bn per year, and fixing this problem is big business but it is not always easy to identify the worst offending buildings. Add to this the growth of population in these areas, the use of vehicles on a large and very concentrated scale, emissions from industry and higher pollution levels, there are many factors that contribute to these UHIs. These must be addressed by the owners of the commercial premises that cause the emissions and by local authorities that hold the power to curb them, restrict energy use and other pollutants.
Left unchecked, these UHIs have direct implications. High levels of toxins produced also have a very detrimental effect on people’s health and wellbeing, worsening existing health problems such as asthma and COPD. In a report from 11th Conference on Urban Health in March 2014, on the ‘Attribution of mortality to the urban heat island during heatwaves in the West Midlands, UK’, results suggest that UHI contributed to around 50% of total heat-related mortality during the 2003 heatwave in the UK. The report forecast that: “For a medium emissions scenario, a typical heatwave in 2080 could be responsible for an increase in mortality of around 3 times the rate in 2003 (278 vs. 90 deaths) when including changes in population, population weighting and the UHI effect in the West Midlands, and assuming no change in population adaptation to heat in future.”
We have already touched on pollution and the fact that pollution leads to temperature increase, but heat islands themselves are also becoming pollution islands that are highly toxic to both humans and plant life. Heat islands expedite pollution chemistry leading to excess production of ozone which contributes to global warming and is toxic to humans. Air pollution is responsible for reducing life expectancy by one year yet only 6% of industrial sites cause 75% of factory pollution, we just need to locate these culprits.
Apps are available today that can enable people to literally select the route they choose from A to B in order to avoid the most polluted streets. However, a set of altogether more detailed and highly accessible information is required. This will enable everyone from local authorities and businesses to the individual on the street, to utilize this data to make informed decisions on how they may improve their energy usage, reduce energy waste and make changes to their buildings – and how to more safely negotiate a way around the streets to avoid pollution hotspots.
Heat Mapping
A heat map is a living document which records the energy that is generated by individual buildings, vehicles and the surrounding area such as roads – anything that emits heat and energy. This detailed map can then enable the pinpointing of buildings that are emitting – and wasting – large amounts of energy and contributing to the UHI phenomenon.
If this thermal pollution can be monitored, then measures can be taken to limit it, but, at present, there is limited technology to gain an in-depth understanding of where the heat is coming from to trigger these heat islands. It is nowhere near detailed, accessible or plentiful enough. At present, the data is obtained using ground-based monitoring at limited known trouble spots or across a wider area by aeroplanes which are used for one-off data gathering exercises over selective areas and are an expensive solution for collecting a time-series of measurements.
Satellite-based data is more useful, but existing commercial satellites, again, do not deliver enough detail. Resolution of imagery is not high enough to conduct building level assessments, and the satellites do not re-visit a location frequently enough to allow in-depth monitoring at different times of the day, and optical systems have restricted viewing at night. Therefore, a detailed picture cannot be built up of a location. The technology simply has not been available to assess UHIs to the level that is necessary if we are to prevent the situation from worsening significantly.
Taking Action
Satellite Vu is developing a dual-use solution that will help tackle the scourge of UHIs using high-value data that will enable the commercial sector to analyze its impact on UHIs and how to mitigate it. Satellite Vu’s data can be fused with other data sources to produce computer models of smart cities often known as digital-twins.
In order to address the problem of UHIs and of energy waste from buildings, verifiable facts are required – hard data that can enable governments and businesses to grasp the severity of the problem and so that individual buildings and areas can be pinpointed and direct action taken. Satellite Vu will produce a heat map of any city, anywhere in the world, initially targeting the top 125 largest cities covering an area of 200,000 km representing a combined GDP of US$26tn, with a total population of 0.5 bn, to help determine the carbon footprint, energy waste and the impact on surroundings of any building.
Using innovation in satellite earth observation technology, Satellite Vu is preparing to deliver geospatial data from its commercial, high-resolution infrared-equipped small satellites. This will be processed using a unique, proprietary algorithm, creating highly accessible and actionable data enabling an extremely detailed picture of a particular site to be formed. Without the rapid and accurate interpretation of data, the imagery captured is of little use, being only a mass of Big Data. Satellite Vu’s algorithms apply both the science behind the image and the computer recognition that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can deliver.
Current satellite technology enables just one snapshot of an area per day as the satellite will typically re-visit a site just once every 24 hours around mid-morning, optical systems are restricted when urban activity can peak around twilight, yet for the pattern of life analysis and dynamic unfolding events, this is simply not enough.
Satellite Vu’s satellite fleet will initiate multiple visits of a site per day and fast delivery of information, essential for the time-sensitive applications that Satellite Vu will be targeting. This will also improve user engagement through responsive service, creating useful and timely insights for users. Satellite Vu’s sensor can provide information throughout the day and night and can collect data across a whole city. The solution is highly scalable to any place on earth. Satellite Vu intends to launch a satellite and sensor within the next 18 months followed by a small constellation that will improve the re-visit time.
Sustainable Finance
The kind of data that Satellite Vu will provide will also help to facilitate the concept of sustainable or green finance which refers to a financial asset class that has positive environmental outcomes that are absolutely verifiable. These investments should reduce pressures on the environment, address greenhouse gas emissions and tackle pollution, minimize waste by improving efficiency in the use of natural resources. The benefits created should be real and tangible.
Climate finance is also emerging as a type of green finance in developing countries for programmes that help to tackle climate change through the reduction of emissions, for example. Governments across the world are making funds more widely available for this purpose in line with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
However, in order to ensure that these projects really are environmentally friendly, geospatial data from Satellite Vu will be essential as it offers the capability to monitor a site in detail and to check on energy and emissions at any time, day or night. This capability can be used by financial institutions to verify that companies are actually becoming sustainable through their daily operations and are having a direct benefit on the world around them, ensuring compliance. Satellite Vu’s data will be used to indemnify every building in a fund rate the building by its actual emissions or compare buildings by a class of business.
The role of Satellite Vu in new, smart cities will also become prominent. In time, the Internet of Things is predicted to connect our cities as never before and Big Data will enable authorities and businesses to manage assets more efficiently. Satellite Vu ties in directly with this vision of the future, offering a view from space that cannot be achieved by any other means, giving insights and influencing behavior in a completely unique way.
Satellite Vu will be first-to-market with a space-based solution that will finally offer the capabilities that the government and commercial sector require to take action on the environmental impact our modern life is making on our planet.
We look forward to making a true difference to Earth from space.
Note: This is a guest blog by Anthony Baker, CEO Satellite Vu
