Arizona State University professor Hua We and his team developed two projects to help protect people during extreme heat. These projects use map routing and AI tools in their functions.
The Shaded Route Planning project uses generative AI to make predictions about how shadows from buildings and other elements will appear in certain areas over time.
“So my team at ASU built a tool called Shaded Routing that works a bit like Google Maps, but instead of only giving you the fastest route, it can also show you the coolest or shadiest ... what we call ... the shadiest route," he said.
A prototype was tested at the Paris Olympics.
The other project, called DeepShade, uses generative AI to predict how shade falls in a city throughout the day. Wei says the tool demonstrates how much shade cover might be provided by buildings or trees.
“So we want the shade to be dynamic because the shade actually shifts by the hour, by the season, by how tall the buildings are. So we built DeepShade.”
Wei said the goals of these tools are to protect people and get cities to build cooler and more resilient communities for the future. Plans for the projects also include collaborating with government agencies in Arizona.
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