Our Underground Climate Change Global Working Group aims to develop solutions for the ways rising temperatures in the subsurface of cities threaten infrastructure, public health, and the environment.
About the Project
Cities worldwide are experiencing underground climate change caused by the accumulation of waste heat released by buildings and buried infrastructure. This process can produce ground temperatures approaching 160°F (70°C), affect depths of up to 100 meters, and progress at rates far exceeding global atmospheric warming. Despite its global prevalence, knowledge of underground climate change remains fragmented across disciplines and largely absent from urban policy and planning. Using interdisciplinary partnerships and global evidence, the Roberta Buffett Institute’s Underground Climate Change Global Working Group is developing the first coordinated effort to understand and address its effects on built, environmental, and human systems. The group will bring together scholars, cities, utilities, and industry partners to synthesize existing knowledge, translate insights from adjacent fields, and identify priorities for research, policy, and practice.
Group Members
Co-leads
Alessandro Rotta Loria
Louis Berger Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering
Magdalena Osburn
Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and (by courtesy) Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Northwestern University Research Collaborators
Ludmilla Aristilde
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering
Giorgia Chinazzo
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering.
David A. Dana
Professor and Director, Program on Sustainability and Food and Animal Law, Pritzker School of Law and Kellogg School of Management.
George Wells
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering.
Giuseppe Buscarnera
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering.
Gianluca Cusatis
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering.
Amanda Stathopoulos
Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering.
Sera Young
Professor, Department of Anthropology, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences.
Partners
International Research Collaborators
Peter Bayer,
Professor,
University of Halle, Germany.
Philipp Blum
Professor,
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany.
Ruchi Choudhary,
Professor,
University of Cambridge, England.
Jannis Epting,
Professor,
University of Basel, Switzerland.
Kathrin Menberg,
Associate Professor,
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany.
Asal Bidarmaghz,
Senior Lecturer,
University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia
Alessandro Casasso,
Associate Professor,
Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Giovanni Crosta,
Professor,
University of Milan, Italy
Grant Ferguson,
Professor,
University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
Alberto Previati,
Associate Professor,
University of Milan, Italy
Kenichi Soga,
Professor,
University of California Berkeley, USA.
Tuvia Turkeltaub,
Associate Professor,
Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research, Israel.
