Vol.2 No. 10 October 28,1999 foam |aan » HIRI NEWS Heat Island Reduction INITIATIVE b 0 E EPA Sacramento to meet with a rooftop garden manager and architect; Los Angeles to include heat island mitigation strategies in revised SIP Call participants Tina Davies, Houston (tdavies@harc.edu) Virginia Gorsevski, EPA (gorsevski.virginia@epa.gov) Lucie Griggs, Atlanta, GA (iwgriggs@hotmail.com) Matt Nichols, ICLEI (mnichois@iciei.org) Martha Turner, Sacramento, CA (watrtree@pacbeii.net) Madelyn Carpenter, ICF (mcarpenter@icfconsuiting.com) Urban Heat Island Pilot Project and Cool Community updates Because Tina Davies (Houston Environmental Foresight) and Matt Nichols (ICLEI) were new to the call, Virginia Gorsevski (EPA) provided a history of the HILI program and an overview of the UHIPP and Cool Communities program. Sacramento Outreach activities Martha Turner (Sacramento Tree Foundation) said that on November 18, 1999, Sacramento will participate in the Green Buildings Product Showcase with the local utility (Sacramento's municipal utility district - SMUD). Sacramento will give a presentation on Cool Communities concepts and techniques, and steps for advancing other Cool Communities efforts in the Sacramento region. SMUD will discuss the tree planting efforts that are occurring in the city. Thermal maps will be displayed along with posters summarizing Cool Communities techniques. The display will be next to the Sacramento Shade Tree Program (a joint program between SMUD and the Sacramento Tree Foundation). Martha said that the showcase has helped the city strengthen its relationship with SMUD and noted that the showcase was well attended in San Francisco. Sacramento presented Cool Communities techniques to the West Sacramento planning commission, but has not yet heard whether the commission will incorporate Cool Communities policies or designs. Lisa will also present Cool Communities information to the Elk Grove and Laguna county planning advisory committees. Sacramento anticipates that future development will occur in these counties, and hopes to be able to implement Cool Communities techniques in these areas. Rooftop gardens Sacramento's steering committee will meet at a rooftop garden in the city to talk with the facility manager about maintenance costs and with the garden's senior architect. This meeting will allow the committee to see an actual rooftop garden and to ask questions. Parking lot renovation project Sacramento had hoped to work with Raley's grocery chain but the plans did not go through. Thus, ------- 2 HEAT ISLAND REDUCTION INITIATIVE (HIRI) NEWS October 28, 1999 city is currently contacting other grocery chains and speaking with architects and developers of new developing areas, to expand its search for new opportunities to retrofit parking lots. Sacramento's Cool Communities program has thought about comparing software programs and hopes to determine how the local developer community can use the programs for redeveloping existing areas and to plan new development. Sacramento hopes to study the Places software developed by the California Energy Commission, the state of Washington, and the state of Oregon. The program focuses on energy usage in terms of different land development patterns and is used by San Jose and San Diego. The California Energy Commission has a contract with the city for initial feasibility studies to determine if the program can be used in city of Sacramento. The Cool Communities program also plans to review the Energy 10 software program (currently used by the University of Arizona's House Energy Doctor Program). Web site Lisa Gartland (PositivEnergy) is revising Sacramento's Cool Community web site (www.energy.ca.gov/ coolcommunity/index.html) to add reference materials, update the site with new information, and include links to contacts that sell roofing and paving products that can be used to implement heat island reduction measures. Atlanta Web site Lucie Griggs (American Forests) has registered a Cool Communities web site (www. coolcommunities.org). She asked the coordinators for suggestions on finding funding and a web site host. (The cost for having a web site domain is $114 a year plus a yearly renewal fee.) The web site will include general information about urban heat island mitigation strategies and link to specific pilot city information. Martha suggested working with a state agency, because the California Energy Commission hosts Sacramento's web site. Virginia noted that she plans to work with ICF to develop a federal web site that will link to local Cool Communities pages. Outreach Atlanta gave a presentation at the Georgia American Institute of Architects (AIA) Convention. Lucie also hopes to present to the Metropolitan Atlanta Regional Transportation Authority and to the Greenprints 2000: Sustainable Communities by Design Conference to be held February 6-8, 2000, in Atlanta. This conference is sponsored by Southface Energy Institute (a non-profit research center on sustainable building practices) and the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority. The conference will be an environmental orientation program for sustainable issues. Lucie will moderate a panel discussing heat island mitigation through improved parking lot design. She will also distribute Cool Communities material during the conference and trade show. Martha mentioned that Lucie might want to consider using the Park-o- matic software program developed by staff at Peter Calthorpe, a consulting firm in Portland, Oregon. The program is an urban design tool focusing on the double-use of urban parking lots. Interviews with the weather channel and WAMC Lucie mentioned that her weather channel interview on Atlanta's Cool Communities program will air in October and will be repeated as part of a regular program during the year 2000. Lucie also was interviewed by the radio station WAMC, which is affiliated with ABC. The 15-20 minute radio segment will be broadcast on public radio stations affiliated with ABC and will be posted on the WAMC web site (www.wamc.org). Lucie will pass along more information about these interviews when available. Houston Tina is on Houston's UHIPP planning committee. She organized Houston's Cool and Green Conference in May 1999 to discuss the urban heat island issue in Houston. Tina noted that one of the conference workgroups has continued to meet to follow-up on issues discussed during the workshop. The group has discussed green building issues with builders and hopes to hold a green building conference. Tina has also been involved with NASA efforts to fund a grant to gather and analyze remote sensing data for Houston. ------- 3 HEAT ISLAND REDUCTION INITIATIVE (HIRI) NEWS October 28, 1999 Tina noted that there are many ongoing heat island reduction activities occurring in Houston, but there is no actively-coordinated program. The city has hired a contractor, Jim Blackburn, who is interested in implementing Heat Island Reduction Initiatives. Martha suggested Tina speak with Ray Tretheway, the Executive Director of the Sacramento Tree Foundation, regarding urban forestry. Publicity Houston has received a great deal of recent publicity regarding its air quality. Virginia noted that an ABC news article publicized the fact that Houston has surpassed Los Angeles to be the city with the worst air quality in the United States. In addition, a local television station aired a three- minute segment on heat island reduction. During the segment, a local roofing company demonstrated cooler retrofit roofing products. Houston has acquired City Green software to determine existing tree cover in Houston and the associated benefits. Urban foresters are meeting in November to discuss related cooling initiatives. On November 16, the city will meet with staff from the Texas Forest Service Urban Forestry unit to discuss potential projects. In addition, the city will discuss the tree inventory to be conducted in downtown Houston. The inventory will be led by Victor Cordova, head of the City of Houston Urban Forestry. Salt Lake City Camille Russell (Utah Office of Energy Services) was not able to participate in the conference call, but is preparing a report on Salt Lake City's June to October 1999, activities. The report will highlight the Kool Kids program, the Cool Concepts for Cities and Towns Conference, CoolSpaces, ordinance changes, and major events and speaking engagements related to the Heat Island Reduction Initiatives. Los Angeles Gary Gero (City of Los Angeles) was unable to participate in the conference call, but e-mailed the coordinators an update on one of Los Angeles' activities. Amendment to the 1997 SIP for Ozone Gary noted that the South Coast Air District has proposed an amendment to the 1997 State Implementation Program (SIP) for ozone. The amendment includes heat island mitigation strategies as a potential mitigation measure and acknowledges EPA's pilot cities and their efforts to reduce the heat island effect. ICLEI's Cities for Climate Protection Campaign Virginia noted that ICLEI's Cities for Climate Protection Campaign was held on October 7-10, 1999, in Los Angeles. The conference focused on green power and heat island mitigation. Hashem Akbari (LBNL) gave an introduction on urban heat islands and the Heat Island Reduction Initiatives. Alex Holt (Chicago Department of Environmental Health) spoke about rooftop gardens and other heat island reduction activities in Chicago. Virginia moderated a panel in which Lisa, Camille, and Gary spoke about activities in their cities. Virginia noted how the panel showed the different approaches of state, city, and non- profit organizations in achieving the same heat island reduction goals. Lucie spoke about demonstration projects in Sacramento. Camille spoke about Heat Island Reduction Initiative outreach and the Cool Kids program. Gary spoke about pollution and air quality modeling in Los Angeles. After the panel, participants met in breakout groups to discuss issues and how to implement various strategies. ICLEI is summarizing the results of the meeting to study low cost measures that are easily implemented. Matt is finalizing the notes from the breakout groups and will send the writeup to Virginia to distribute to city coordinators. Barney Popkin, a contractor hired by ICLEI, is developing model languages for building codes and ordinances that incorporate heat island mitigation strategies. This information will be compiled in the form of a tool kit that will be distributed to city coordinators. Air quality modeling Virginia noted that LBNL is currently finalizing its modeling reports for Baton Rouge, Sacramento, and Salt Lake City. Virginia will distribute the results to the city coordinators once reviewed by LBNL and EPA. Virginia is planning a workshop to discuss the results of LBNL and other studies, as well as the general modeling approach. Virginia asked city coordinators to ------- 4 HEAT ISLAND REDUCTION INITIATIVE (HIRI) NEWS provide her with the name of one person with air quality and meteorological modeling expertise from their city who might attend the workshop. Smart Growth Conference Matt is scheduled to speak on a panel at the Smart Growth Conference in San Diego and asked if anyone else was speaking at the conference. The conference is hosted by EPA and the Land Institute. Lucie said that Jim Durrett (Vice President of Environmental Affairs, Metropolitan Atlanta Chamber of Commerce) will participate in the conference. Jim is a member of Atlanta's Cool Communities Steering Committee. Next steps • Lucie will send Virginia information to distribute to city coordinators about the weather channel interview. interested in participating in the air quality workshop. • Virginia will distribute Camille's activities report to city coordinators. • Virginia will distribute LBNL's modeling results to city coordinators once reviewed by LBNL and EPA. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, the next conference call is scheduled for Thursday, December 2, 1999, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. EDT. Stay tuned for the call-in number and access code. • Matt will submit the ICLEI conference summary to Virginia to distribute to the city coordinators. • Lucie would appreciate receiving additional information on the Park-o-matic software program or other programs that can be used in designing parking lots that use Cool Communities techniques. • Camille will submit the report on Salt Lake City's activities to Virginia to distribute to the city coordinators. • Virginia asked city coordinators to provide her with names of people with air quality, meteorology, and policy expertise, who might be October 28, 1999 ------- |