Dr. Anamika Shreevastava

I am a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow working with Dr. Glynn Hulley to study the impact of extreme heat on urban areas and urban inhabitants. Cities face the worst brunt of extreme heat as they already experience elevated local temperatures caused by urban heat island (UHI). Therefore, cities must look for novel ways to adapt and be resilient. I view this problem as a trans-disciplinary challenge that is at the nexus of two interacting complex systems - extreme weather and urban socio-technological systems. For my doctoral research, I integrated tools and techniques from complex systems science, such as fractal geometry and percolation theory, with Landsat-derived Land Surface Temperature (LST) datasets for 100 cities across the world to study the spatial complexity of intra-urban heat island. At JPL, I am building on my doctoral research to examine the impact of extreme weather events such as heatwaves on the urban ecosystems and vulnerable populations. I use a combination of remotely sensed LST (from Landsat and ECOSTRESS) and high-resolution Weather Research Forecast (WRF) modeling to simulate urban thermal dynamics at a neighborhood scale.