Google’s Heat Resilience Tool for Urban Heat Mitigation 

Google has developed a new, Heat Resilience tool, that will determine strategies to help reduce temperatures in the future. 

The Heat Resilience tool helps officials implement the right strategies for urban heat mitigation, such as planting trees and adding cool roofs that reflect heat, and will be able to figure out the impact of planting on reducing the temperature. 

Primarily used in Miami, since it suffers from what’s known as “urban heat island effect” where most roads, parking lots, buildings, and other infrastructure absorb and release extra heat compared to the natural landscapes of rural areas. 

How Does Heat Resilience Tool Work? 

Google latest tool uses AI on satellite and aerial images to identify how much tree shade is in every neighborhood, and how many roofs are covered with reflective materials.  

By using machine learning, the tech giant’s Heat Resilience shows how those trees and roofs are affecting local temperatures and is currently being tested in 14 cities. 

With just easy taps, city officials can adjust the tool’s settings and determine to what extent adding more trees or cool roofs would effectively reduce temperatures.  

If a city looks to increase its tree cover from 8% to 20%, the Heat Resilience tool can be used to see how that change could have an impact on the temperature. 

Mansi Kansal, a research product manager on the Google team that helped develop the tool, told Latitude Media they hope that cities use the data generated by the tool to implement cooling improvements such as cool roofs, as it has proven to reduce the peak energy demand for cooling to as much as 27%.  

In fact, Google first introduced the Heat Resilience tool back in 2023, allowing cities to see exactly how much tree cover they currently have. Cities like Austin have already used it to identify where neighborhoods need trees.  

The Tree Equity Score from American Forests uses Google’s data, too, to help cities in their planning, with the newest iteration of the tool would help the city planners estimate the benefits of making changes. 

“The goal of our tool is really to help cities quantify how strategies can help them reduce urban temperatures in the local context,” said Kansal. 

“If somebody is replacing their roof or building one anew, this doesn’t cost additional money to install a cool roof,” said Jane Gilbert, chief heat officer at Miami-Dade County. 

Gilbert believes adding shade trees or cool roofs is for the good of the neighborhood and the homeowner, helping save money on energy bills, with people needing less air conditioning. 

Google’s Heat Resilience tool will, no doubt, be very important in cities that want to adapt and protect their people, assisting in the decision making of planting trees or putting in cool roofs, providing a useful way to fight the rising heat and make city life better. 

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