Title: Assessing Neighborhood Climate Risk and Daily Exposures in Cities
Presenting Author: Alex Ruane
Organization: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Co-Author(s): Cynthia Rosenzweig, Christian Braneon, Reginald Blake, Hamid Norouzi, Maria Dombrov, Dan Bader, Andres Castellano, Natalie Kozlowski

Abstract:
We describe the development of digital twin capabilities for assessing climate impacts on urban settings, with a focus on understanding how climate affects people over the course of their daily lives. Utilizing New York City as a test bed for data and stakeholder interaction, work focuses on three application focus areas, each defined by a climate hazard, impacted system, and stakeholder group most directly responsible for managing risk: 1) Extreme heat affecting schools, with the NYC Department of Education 2) Inland flooding disrupting transportation, with the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) 3) Coastal flooding reaching medical infrastructure, with the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Digital twins are built on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Risk Framework, which notes that impacts take place at the intersection of a climate hazard, vulnerability, and exposure. Each of these risk components can be further refined, for example understanding the particular intensity or duration of climate hazard that is most detrimental, the nature of vulnerability to a specific hazard, and exposure as a dynamic representation of where people and other assets are when the hazard occurs. Machine learning models are being fit to available data from New York City. Collaboration with NYC stakeholders is helping us to co-develop the digital replica of the urban environment, with datasets helping us to understand environmental responses and the potential effects of system changes. City partners also provide insights into proposed adaptation investments and risk management planning to build city resilience, which allows us to better design our models and to provide foresight into the likely benefits and drawbacks of each approach. In partnership with the NASA AIST Program, this Urban Digital Twin will be constructed to facilitate connection to other digital twin resources.