SOILS 415 & on Zoom
Join us Wednesdays at 3:30 for our fall departmental seminar series. This week's guest is Kathy Klink, associate professor in the UMN Department of Geography, Environment & Society.
Title: "Urban farms as green infrastructure for urban heat mitigation"
Abstract: Urban impervious surfaces are a significant contributor to the urban heat island (UHI). Efforts to mitigate the UHI often focus on reducing impervious surface area by adding green infrastructure, especially trees. Urban farms are another type of green infrastructure, and though they typically have relatively few trees, farms do have previous soils and actively transpiring crops, both of which also help to reduce the UHI. I use six years of temperature measurements in and near Frogtown Farm in St. Paul, Minnesota, to assess whether the farm can help to mitigate the UHI. Results show that mean maximum and minimum temperatures at the farm do not differ significantly from nearby neighborhood locations with a higher relative proportion of tree cover. In contrast, minimum temperatures at the farm in July and August are cooler by about 1oC than the broader urbanized area, with no significant differences in maximum temperatures. These results suggest that, on average, the urban farm potentially can reduce the nocturnal UHI without exacerbating the daytime UHI. Further research, including in other geographical and climatological contexts, will help clarify the heat mitigation potential of urban agriculture as green infrastructure.
*Please note: This seminar will not be recorded.
Visit the SWAC website for a full calendar of this semester's seminars.