An Urban and Water Thematic Group event.
Speakers: Mark Roberts and Nicholas Jones
Speakers’ Bios:
Mark Roberts is a Lead Urban Economist with the World Bank’s Urban, Resilience and Land Global Practice, and the Bank’s Global Co-Lead for Spatial and Territorial Development. He is a lead author of the Bank’s recently launched Sustainable Development Flagship report, Thriving: Making Cities Green, Resilient and Inclusive in a Changing Climate, as well as of regional Flagship reports on urbanization for both South Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. Mark has also worked on the East Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa regions, and acts as an advisor to Bank teams working on the analysis of processes of urban and spatial development. Mark has published more than thirty papers in peer-reviewed academic journals and edited book volumes. Prior to joining the World Bank, he was an Assistant Professor of spatial economics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. Mark holds a PhD in Land Economy and an MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge, UK, as well as an MSc in Economics from Warwick University, UK.
Nicholas Jones is a Data Scientist with the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery where he leads their thematic program on extreme heat in cities. He joined the World Bank in 2010 and has been stationed in Brussels, New York, Washington DC and Tokyo. A graduate of the University of Cambridge and New York University, he is a keen computer programmer, gardener, and jazz piano player.
Synopsis:
Climate change in combination with the urban heat island (UHI) effect is resulting in an increased frequency and intensity of extreme urban heat in many countries around the world. This session will consist of two presentations on the World Bank’s recent analytical and technical assistance work in response to client demand on the topic of extreme urban heat. The first presentation will cover findings from the Bank’s recently launched report, Unlivable: What the Urban Heat Island Effect Means for East Asia’s Cities. This report addresses three major questions: (i) how strong is the UHI effect in East Asia, and how is it interacting with climate change? (ii) why should policy makers worry about the UHI effect and extreme urban temperatures more generally? And (iii) what can city leaders do to combat extreme urban heat? Meanwhile, the second presentation will focus on advances in measurement and modeling of extreme heat in cities, including how the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery has engaged citizens to map their own thermal environments through vehicle-based heat mapping campaigns in Indonesia, South Africa and the Western Balkans.
Moderator: The meeting will be facilitated by Catherine Farvacque-Vitkovic Coordinating Committee Member of the Urban & Water Thematic Group. In this capacity, she will introduce the speakers and lead the question-and-answer session to follow the presentation.
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