{"304281":{"#nid":"304281","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"Assoc. Prof. Brian Stone assists Louisville to mitigate urban heat","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ELouisville\u0027s concrete jungle is taking its toll on the city and its residents. Drivers may have noticed how the thermometers in their vehicles climb as they approach downtown. There is a reason behind the temperature change and it is not a good one. Louisville is a heat island. In fact, it is the number one heat island in the country. Phoenix ranked second followed by Atlanta. Other major cities like St. Louis and even the great megalopolis New York City rank much further down the list\u2026 The City of Louisville brought Dr. Brian Stone, a professor of urban planning at\u003Cstrong\u003E Georgia Tech\u003C\/strong\u003E, to discuss heat decreasing options. Dr. Stone came up with the heat island rankings and is the one who said Louisville has one of the warmest urban centers in the world. \u0022What\u0027s unique about Louisville, in particular, is the tree canopy is very sparse. Increasing the tree canopy downtown is the key. We have a commission now that\u0027s working on this as well and a tree assessment is going on. This will help address that problem. Anytime we anytime we are displacing natural vegetation with parking lots and roads we\u0027re raising temps and that\u0027s what\u0027s happening in Louisville,\u0022 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27215","created_gmt":"2014-06-20 14:44:18","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 02:27:08","author":"Mike Alberghini","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"learning innovation","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"http:\/\/www.wave3.com\/story\/25801231\/heat-island","dateline":{"date":"2014-06-19T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-06-19T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1224","name":"School of City \u0026 Regional Planning"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}