Texas endures hundreds of deaths annually from heat-related illness. Certain communities are more prone to excessive heat due to infrastructure components in these areas re-emitting the sun’s heat. The Urban Heat Island Research Team at the UT San Antonio School of Architecture + Planning conducts research to help solve this problem. Assistant Professor of Architecture Farzad Hashemi, with a collective of students from the team collaborated with the Historic Westside Residents Association to find solutions for the excessive heat.

Poor circulation and lack of air conditioning in residents’ homes are issues that many faculty and students are trying to mitigate as a team. Hashemi mentioned that participants include high school students, professors and university students in the local area. He further explained the economic benefit of lower overall temperatures. 

“Reducing heat can also impact the building‘s energy consumption for cooling loads, so then they can see the impact on the electricity bills,” Hashemi said during an interview with The Paisano. 

The team’s primary tool to achieve this is the “digital twin models,” a virtual scan of the west side neighborhood. This virtual model allows researchers the opportunity to manipulate the neighborhood virtually and see the results of these changes.

“It’s definitely not good for people who are vulnerable to heat to stay in those houses,” Hashemi explained.

Using a combination of artificial intelligence with data collected from the historic west side neighborhood, the model is able to use adaptive learning and real-time sensing to predict how certain homes experience heat throughout the day. The system is also capable of proposing a strategy to mitigate the heat, meaning everything can be done within this live virtual model of the neighborhood. 

 “So instead of doing trial and error, adding trees, removing trees or all of those strategies in [the] real world, we first do it in our model, then see the impact and evaluate the impact, and then we decide which strategy will be more impactful,” Hashemi said.

This project earned a competitive $700,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, a federal agency established by Congress that accounts for about 25% of federal support to colleges and universities across America. Hashemi underscores the importance of federal funding to this project. 

“It paved our paths toward the goal that we have, which is developing the model,” Hashemi revealed. “And we also have funding for home rehab, so we are now focusing on 10 homes in [the] West Side to develop the digital twin model for, but these 10 homes will also receive small funding for home rehab.”

As the funding currently limits researchers to observe and renovate 10 houses, the goal for the future is to reach out to more residents willing to participate. Once they agree, the team will begin working on developing a model and plan for their home. 

Although the research results will not be available until October 2026, Hashemi hopes the product and model can one day be applied on a city-wide scale.