To deal with those threats and prepare for the impacts still to come, 10 state agencies collaborated on the . Using the latest science as a foundation, the state鈥檚 new climate strategy, released Sept. 30, identifies actions that agencies will take to address the top climate change threats facing Washington: drought, changing ocean conditions, flooding, extreme heat, and wildfires and smoke.

The strategy鈥檚 creation was directed by the Washington Legislature, bringing together the state departments of agriculture, commerce, ecology, fish and wildlife, health, natural resources, transportation, the Washington State Conservation Commission, the Emergency Management Division and the Puget Sound Partnership. The UW Climate Impacts Group grounded the work with the most up-to-date science and developed a framework to measure progress on climate resilience.

The Legislature has also directed the 10 agencies to update the plan every four years to incorporate the latest science, resources and concerns into the strategy.

鈥淭his plan gives our state a road map to respond to major climate impacts like wildfires, smoke, severe heat, drought and flooding,鈥� said , interim director of the UW Climate Impacts Group, which acts as a hub for climate information and adaptation strategy for Washington state agencies and communities. 鈥淏y understanding what the state can do, what resources are available, and where they can have the greatest impact, we can limit the damage caused by these events, protecting lives, livelihoods and the environment that supports us all.鈥�

In the plan, each of the responsible agencies will act as the lead for specific actions, based on their existing roles and expertise.

鈥淲ashington got lucky this summer. We had fewer major wildfires and more moderate drought,鈥� said Laura Watson, director of the state Department of Ecology. 鈥淲e know that was just a temporary reprieve. We鈥檝e seen devastating proof in recent years of how vulnerable our state is. We are very susceptible to rising temperatures, summer wildfires, drought and winter floods. We have to prepare now so we鈥檙e ready for what鈥檚 to come.鈥�

UW Climate Impacts Group contributors also included , Washington’s State Climatologist, and , a climate resilience specialist. , who鈥檚 now deputy director at the , of which the UW is a member, contributed while based at the UW Climate Impacts Group.

Adapted from a Department of Ecology . For more information, contact Stowe at stowec@uw.edu.

A launch event will take place 11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, at the UW. Space is limited but reporters are welcome to register . At the launch, UW researchers who contributed to the 5th National Climate Assessment will also share the latest science and findings from the assessment’s Northwest chapter.听

While it is common to see Amazon Prime vans circling the city of Seattle year-round, there might be even more deliveries than usual right now, thanks to the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals that rang in the holiday season.

Researchers at the 天美影视传媒 were curious how the delivery of e-commerce products affects pollution levels across the Seattle metropolitan area, which includes Tacoma, Seattle, Bellevue and Everett.

According to the team’s study, neighborhoods within 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) of an Amazon last-mile delivery station or sortation center are exposed to twice the amount of delivery van and truck traffic than neighborhoods farther away. These neighborhoods are home to a higher proportion of low-income households and people of color compared to the rest of the metro area. These residents also order 14% fewer packages than average in this area.

The researchers Dec. 2 in Research in Transportation Economics.

“E-commerce is changing how we shop and how we travel in cities, but transportation researchers don’t really have a good way to measure or even talk about e-commerce in terms of equity,” said lead author , a UW doctoral student in the civil and environmental engineering department. “So, we started by asking, ‘Well, who’s ordering the packages?’ which I think we have a clearer idea of now. Then we asked, ‘Who’s affected by the pollution and the traffic that this ordering creates?’ Our study found that there’s a substantial disparity between those two populations.”

Because this is the first study of its kind, the researchers started by looking for broad trends based on household income and race. “People of color” in this study included people who identified as any other race or ethnicity besides non-Hispanic white on the census. The team defined a ‘vulnerable’ neighborhood as one with a below-average household income and a higher percentage of people of color compared to the broader metropolitan area.

To get an idea of who was ordering packages, the researchers used data from the , which, in a recent survey, included a question about how many packages people were ordering on an average day.

From there, the team looked at where the neighborhoods were situated compared to Amazon last-mile delivery stations.

“Last-mile delivery stations are a unique feature to the Amazon supply chain,” Fried said. “They have trucks going in, usually from a sortation or a fulfillment center that’s a little bit further out from the city. Then coming out the other end are cargo vans 鈥� these are the cargo vans that we see circulating our neighborhoods. Ultimately, we tried to estimate this inflow of trucks and outflow of cargo vans.”

The researchers chose to focus on Amazon because it is the biggest player in the e-commerce market. Any trend they found for Amazon would likely be similar for other e-commerce companies, the researchers said.

Based on a neighborhood’s proximity to a last-mile delivery station and the residential ordering behaviors, the researchers could model how cargo vans and trucks were distributed throughout the network. Then they used the to simulate the amount of pollution each neighborhood would experience.

“It’s almost like each warehouse represents a sun with rays emanating out of it,” Fried said. “Those rays will be more intense the closer you are, and then as it branches out to other neighborhoods, it becomes less dense. The closer you are to something that’s hot, the more heat you will end up feeling. And these warehouses are just massive generators of freight activity. But not all that is destined for those neighborhoods nearby. And that’s where the inequity lies.”

In some ways these results are not surprising, the researchers said.

“Warehousing and distribution centers have historically concentrated in historically marginalized communities, including those with a high number of low-income households and a high proportion of people of color,” Fried said. “The concentration of industrial zoning happened through mechanisms that were either explicitly racialized during the early-to-mid 20th century or had the indirect effect of creating segregation near industrial land. Even though these policies are illegal today, we still see evidence of them locked into our modern-day development.”

The researchers hope to expand this finding in future studies by looking at how these results specifically affect different racial and ethnic groups as well as other vulnerable groups, such as older adults and people with disabilities. The team is also planning to make the model more easily accessible for other cities to use.

As for what the average consumer can do now, the answer is not straightforward.

“You could say, ‘OK, just stop shopping online.’ But then people may just be driving more to shop and there will be more cars on the road, which still leads to more air pollution,” Fried said. “There’s no easy solution to this issue. But if we’re trying to improve something, we need to at least know where we start.”

Additional co-authors on this paper are , UW doctoral student in the industrial and systems engineering department, and , UW professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the .

For more information, contact Fried at tfried3@uw.edu.

The New York Climate Exchange, a first-of-its-kind organization working to implement innovative climate solutions in New York City and across the globe, on Nov. 9 Stephen Hammer as its founding chief executive officer.

Hammer is a global climate policy expert who has served as top climate advisor at the World Bank for the past decade. In his new role as CEO of , Hammer will lead a first-ever consortium of more than 45 partner organizations committed to solving the most pressing climate challenges of our time.

The 天美影视传媒 is a core member of The New York Climate Exchange, which launched in April. Several UW faculty members are already involved with the initiative, which brings together universities, governments and businesses to address climate change action and adaptation. Plans include an interactive living laboratory with 400,000 square feet of green-designed building space, incorporating research labs, classroom space, exhibits, greenhouses, mitigation technologies and housing facilities.

, dean of the 天美影视传媒 College of the Environment and board member of The Exchange, co-chaired the CEO search committee along with Chaouki T. Abdallah, vice chair of the board of directors and executive vice president for research at the Georgia Institute of Technology

鈥淲e could not be more pleased to welcome Dr. Stephen Hammer, who embodies The Exchange鈥檚 mission,鈥� Tolstoy and Abdallah said. 鈥淗e has an international network and unrivaled New York City experience, and he鈥檚 uniquely qualified to be a 鈥楥onvener-in-Chief鈥� for experts everywhere at a time when humanity needs it most.鈥�

Eric Adams, mayor of New York, and the Trust for Governors Island selected The New York Climate Exchange 鈥� known as The Exchange 鈥� following a two-year competitive process seeking an educational and research partner to anchor a cross-sector center dedicated to developing and scaling climate solutions for New York City and beyond. The Exchange will eventually be housed in a $700 million state-of-the-art facility on Governors Island, set to open in 2028.

With experience driving climate policy in New York City and internationally, Hammer is well positioned to convene partners across sectors to advance climate solutions in New York City. Most recently, Dr. Hammer spent a decade at the World Bank as senior policy advisor on urban-scale climate solutions, global climate policy and finance issues, where he spearheaded key climate partnerships with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN Secretary General鈥檚 team, and the G20, and supported efforts to mainstream climate change into all facets of the World Bank鈥檚 lending operations.

previously held faculty posts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Columbia University鈥檚 School of International and Public Affairs, and the Pratt Institute, where he specialized in urban energy systems and policy, often with a specific focus on New York City. He also co-founded and co-directed the鈥�, an international consortium of researchers interested in climate change from an urban perspective, and served on Mayor Bloomberg鈥檚 Energy Policy Task Force.

鈥淯nder our administration, New York City is becoming the global leader in developing solutions for climate change while creating thousands of good-paying green jobs for New Yorkers,鈥� Adams said. 鈥淲ith the appointment of Dr. Hammer as the CEO of the first-in-the-nation New York Climate Exchange, our city takes one step closer to opening this hub of future innovation, bringing together our leading research and educational institutions, and creating the economic and academic opportunities New Yorkers deserve. His academic expertise and proven record of leadership in New York City and across the globe make Dr. Hammer uniquely positioned to serve as the Exchange鈥檚 first leader.鈥�

Comprised of world-class organizations across academia, business and community, The Exchange鈥檚 partner network fosters collaboration to drive innovation and implement impactful solutions. With 14 academic and corporate organizations and over 30 community entities from environmental justice, research, and government organizations in New York City, partners have begun to work together to advance climate education, research, job training, public programs and commercialization to prepare communities to respond to climate challenges. These efforts are aided by initial investments of a combined $100 million from the Simons Foundation and Simons Foundation International, and $50 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

鈥淭here is truly no organization like this across the globe. Worldwide, too many sectors 鈥� the business community, nonprofits, government, academics and more 鈥� are working in silos. The Exchange is not just another institute 鈥� it鈥檚 part think tank, part do-tank 鈥� serving as a training ground for the climate leaders of tomorrow and an incubator for technology and market entrepreneurs. It鈥檚 meant to innovate and have an impact, to defend science, and to make New York City a living laboratory for international solutions. Climate change is going to reverberate across the world and every aspect of society, and working with our world-class partners, we鈥檙e going to bring people together to deliver real impact on this collective, existential challenge,鈥� Hammer said.

Partners of The Exchange include:

• • • Boston Consulting Group
    • Georgia Institute of Technology
    • Good Old Lower East Side
    • IBM
    • Pace University
    • Pratt Institute
    • Stony Brook University
    • 天美影视传媒
    • Duke University
    • 惭辞辞诲测鈥檚
    • New York University
    • Rochester Institute of Technology
    • SUNY Maritime College
    • The City University of New York
    • University of Oxford

Adapted from the New York Climate Exchange . For more information, contact ClimateExchange@skdknick.com, or Tolstoy at coenvcom@uw.edu. 听

The 天美影视传媒 is a lead partner on a new multi-institution earthquake research center based at the University of Oregon that the National Science Foundation announced Sept. 8 will receive $15 million over five years to study the Cascadia subduction zone and bolster earthquake preparedness in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

The Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center, or CRESCENT, will be the first center of its kind in the nation focused on earthquakes at subduction zones, where one tectonic plate slides beneath another.

The center will unite scientists studying the possible impacts of a major earthquake along the Cascadia subduction zone, an offshore tectonic plate boundary that stretches more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from southern British Columbia to Northern California. The center will advance earthquake research, foster community partnerships, and diversify and train the next generation geosciences work force.

鈥淭he main goal of the center is to bring together the large group of geoscientists working in Cascadia to march together to the beat of a singular drum,鈥� said center director at the University of Oregon. 鈥淭he center organizes us, focuses collaboration and identifies key priorities, rather than these institutions competing.鈥�

CRESCENT includes researchers from 16 institutions around the United States in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The leadership team includes investigators from the UW, Oregon State University and Central Washington University.

The Cascadia subduction zone has a long history of spurring large earthquakes, but scientists have only started to realize its power within the last few decades. Research shows that the fault is capable of producing an earthquake of magnitude-9.0 or greater 鈥� and communities along the U.S. West Coast are ill-prepared for a quake this powerful.

Such an event would set off a cascade of deadly natural hazards in the Cascadia region, from tsunamis to landslides. It could cause buildings and bridges to collapse, disrupt power and gas lines, and leave water supplies inaccessible for months.

CRESCENT鈥檚 work can help mitigate that damage. Scientists will use the latest technology 鈥� including high-performance computing and artificial intelligence 鈥� to understand the complex dynamics of a major subduction zone earthquake. They will gather data and develop tools to better forecast specific local and regional impacts from a quake. That knowledge will help communities to better prepare, by improving infrastructure and nailing down more informed emergency plans.

Valerie Sahakian and Amanda Thomas are co-lead investigators at the University of Oregon.

鈥淢odeling the shaking from California to Canada is a gigantic endeavor,鈥� Sahakian said. 鈥淭he center enables us to make bigger strides in models, products, and lines of research, to work with engineers to create better building codes and actionable societal outcomes.鈥�

Subduction zones in the U.S. are understudied compared to other kinds of faults, and create distinctive earthquake dynamics that still aren鈥檛 fully understood, Melgar said. So the lessons learned from CRESCENT鈥檚 work could also be applied to subduction zones in Alaska, the Caribbean and around the world.

Community collaboration will be a major part of the center鈥檚 work. The CRESCENT team will work with communities impacted by hazards, regularly soliciting their input to guide research priorities. And they鈥檒l build connections with public agencies, tribal groups, and private industry, so that scientific advances from the center will get translated into community action and policy.

The center will also work to increase diversity in geosciences and train the next generation of geoscientists in the latest technologies. For example, it will engage with minority-serving and tribal high schools to raise interest in and create pathways to geoscience careers, and provide fieldwork stipends and year-round paid research assistantships to support undergraduate students.

, a professor of Earth and space sciences at the UW and director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, leads the effort at the UW.

鈥淭his NSF Center will be a game-changer for earthquake research in the Pacific Northwest; it will have direct, real-world public safety consequences for policy and planning,鈥� said Tobin, who holds the Paros Endowed Chair in Seismology and Geohazards and serves as Washington’s state seismologist.

鈥淚nitial CRESCENT efforts include identifying key faults 鈥� both on land and under the sea 鈥� that present earthquake and tsunami hazard, measuring and modeling movements of the crust that could show us where earthquake strain is building, and much more.鈥�

, a research assistant professor of Earth and space sciences at the UW, will lead the working group studying seismic activity and , the more gradual movements along a fault.

鈥淭he end goal is to have a community-driven model that describes all of the tectonic structures of Cascadia,鈥� Crowell said. 鈥淭he objective of CRESCENT is about creating systematic and foundational community science, adapting the best techniques and methods available for use by the seismic community in our region. It will change the process of how we do this science.鈥�

Also initially involved from the UW are , an assistant professor of Earth and space sciences; , a UW professor of Earth and space sciences; and , a professor of oceanography who holds the Jerome M. Paros Endowed Chair in Sensor Networks.

The center will include staff at the U.S. Geological Survey, including affiliate UW faculty members , and , and members of the UW-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, which will continue to perform real-time monitoring and communication of seismic risks in the region.

For more information, contact Tobin at htobin@uw.edu or 206-543-6790, Crowell at crowellb@uw.edu and Melgar at dmelgarm@uoregon.edu or 541-346-3488.

Adapted from a University of Oregon press release.

Other CRESCENT participating institutions are:

Cal Poly Humboldt

Cedar Lake Research Group

EarthScope Consortium

Portland State University

Purdue University

Smith College

Stanford University

University of California – San Diego鈥檚 Scripps Institution of Oceanography

University of North Carolina-Wilmington

Virginia Tech

Washington State University

Western Washington University

Two years after that event 鈥� the deadliest weather-related disaster in state history 鈥� a collaborative effort led by two 天美影视传媒 teams, the Climate Impacts Group and the Center for Health and the Global Environment, or CHanGE, has drawn up recommendations for how people and groups across the state could prevent future heat-related illness and save lives.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot we can do, right now, to save lives in Washington,鈥� said , interim director of the UW Climate Impacts Group. 鈥淭his report is a call to action 鈥� it outlines the things that we know work. Extreme heat is a complicated governance challenge that requires coordination across levels of government, including many state agencies without a health mandate, and across the private and public sectors.鈥�

鈥淭he report highlights the wealth of knowledge we already have about effective strategies,鈥� said Dr. Jeremy Hess, director of CHanGE, who treated patients during the June 2021 event and helped develop a related risk-mapping tool. 鈥淲e need to commit additional resources and build on early investments to protect the most vulnerable.鈥�

The , led by the UW Climate Impacts Group and released June 20 in English and Spanish, points to solutions. There is no single fix, it argues 鈥� the best approach is a broad mix of strategies that address both short-term emergency response and long-term risk reduction. The report builds on a recent co-authored by Vogel that compared Washington鈥檚 heat dome experience against other regions that typically deal with heat. It found that many of the most common strategies, such as cooling centers, don鈥檛 work on their own. Some people might not recognize their risk, and others might lack transportation to cooling centers. Laws to protect outdoor workers, such as those recently passed in Washington, don鈥檛 work without enforcement.

The new report suggests a more comprehensive statewide strategy that could reduce illness and death during future heat events. Some of these general suggestions include:

• Providing air conditioners to low-income households, protecting tenants鈥� rights to install air conditioning window units, and revising building codes to require cooling in new construction
• Establishing volunteer networks to check on older or ill neighbors, those who live alone, and other high-risk residents
• Providing transportation to cooling centers
• Developing a portfolio of strategies, because redundancy is crucial
• Increasing enforcement of laws protecting outdoor workers, especially in the earliest and most dangerous days of extreme heat
• Locating toilets and shade structures close to outdoor workers, to encourage breaks
• In urban areas, increasing green roofs, tree cover and structures that provide shade

A full list of strategies is available in the , which was prepared with partners including Gonzaga University in Spokane, the Office of the Washington State Climatologist, the Washington State Department of Health and UW EarthLab.

CHanGE led development of a related, more specific heat and health tool that can help focus the report’s recommendations by tailoring them to a community鈥檚 specific risks. The (CHaRT) is interactive, which allows local decision-makers to better understand how climate, environmental, social and economic factors contribute to heat risk in their communities. Users can view the short- and long-term risk of dangerously high heat in their community and explore the various demographic, socioeconomic, geographic and medical factors that contribute to that risk.

The tool also provides guidance on how to account for a community鈥檚 specific needs, both in the short and long term. This information includes summaries of each intervention鈥檚 effectiveness, as well as expected costs and implementation timelines.

A community with many young children, for example, might consider opening splash parks and sending extra lifeguards to popular swimming spots when temperatures rise. Meanwhile, an urban community with little shade may opt to plant more trees with an eye toward long-term heat mitigation. Splash pads can be implemented quickly and have a local impact, while increasing tree canopy will take decades and can affect entire neighborhoods.

鈥淭here are two timeframes we鈥檙e trying to support action on,鈥� said Hess, who is a professor of emergency medicine, of environmental and occupational health sciences and of global health at the UW’s School of Public Health. 鈥淥ne is a pretty short time frame, where you get a heat warning, it鈥檚 going to be hot seven to 10 days from now. What can you and your agencies do to prepare to support the community? How do you support the parts of the community that are most at risk?

鈥淭hen there鈥檚 the longer-term, multi-year time frame. That鈥檚 a completely different set of challenges. This tool allows for that planning on multiple time scales.鈥�

For more information, contact Hess at jjhess@uw.edu and Vogel at jmvogel@uw.edu.

If you鈥檝e ever thought you may be running a temperature yet couldn鈥檛 find a thermometer, you aren鈥檛 alone. A fever is the and an early sign of many other viral infections. For quick diagnoses and to prevent viral spread, a temperature check can be crucial. Yet accurate at-home thermometers aren鈥檛 commonplace, despite .

There are a few potential reasons for that. The devices can range from $15 to $300, and many people need them only a few times a year. In times of sudden demand 鈥� such as the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic 鈥� thermometers can sell out. Many people, particularly those in under-resourced areas, can end up without a vital medical device when they need it most.

To address this issue, a team led by researchers at the 天美影视传媒 has created an app called FeverPhone, which transforms smartphones into thermometers without adding new hardware. Instead, it uses the phone’s touchscreen and repurposes the existing battery temperature sensors to gather data that a machine learning model uses to estimate people鈥檚 core body temperatures. When the researchers tested FeverPhone on 37 patients in an emergency department, the app estimated core body temperatures with accuracy comparable to some consumer thermometers. The team March 28 in Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.

鈥淚n undergrad, I was doing research in a lab where we wanted to show that you could use the temperature sensor in a smartphone to measure air temperature,鈥� said lead author , a UW doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering.听鈥淲hen I came to the UW, my adviser and I wondered how we could apply a similar technique for health. We decided to measure fever in an accessible way. The primary concern with temperature isn鈥檛 that it鈥檚 a difficult signal to measure; it鈥檚 just that people don鈥檛 have thermometers.鈥�

The app is the first to use existing phone sensors to estimate whether people have fevers. It needs more training data to be widely used, Breda said, but for doctors, the potential of such technology is exciting.

鈥淧eople come to the ER all the time saying, ‘I think I was running a fever.’ And that鈥檚 very different than saying ‘I was running a fever,’鈥� said , a co-author on the study and a UW clinical instructor at the Department of Emergency Medicine in the UW School of Medicine.听鈥淚n a wave of influenza, for instance, people running to the ER can take five days, or even a week sometimes. So if people were to share fever results with public health agencies through the app, similar to how we signed up for COVID exposure warnings, this earlier sign could help us intervene much sooner.鈥�

Clinical-grade thermometers use tiny sensors known as thermistors to estimate body temperature. Off-the-shelf smartphones also happen to contain thermistors; they鈥檙e mostly used to monitor the temperature of the battery. But the UW researchers realized they could use these sensors to track heat transfer between a person and a phone. The phone touchscreen could sense skin-to-phone contact, and the thermistors could gauge the air temperature and the rise in heat when the phone touched a body.

To test this idea, the team started by gathering data in a lab. To simulate a warm forehead, the researchers heated a plastic bag of water with a sous-vide machine and pressed phone screens against the bag. To account for variations in circumstances, such as different people using different phones, the researchers tested three phone models. They also added accessories such as a screen protector and a case and changed the pressure on the phone.

The researchers used the data from different test cases to train a machine learning model that used the complex interactions to estimate body temperature. Since the sensors are supposed to gauge the phone鈥檚 battery heat, the app tracks how quickly the phone heats up and then uses the touchscreen data to account for how much of that comes from a person touching it. As they added more test cases, the researchers were able to calibrate the model to account for the variations in things such as phone accessories.

Then the team was ready to test the app on people. The researchers took FeverPhone to the UW School of Medicine鈥檚 Emergency Department for a clinical trial where they compared its temperature estimates against an oral thermometer reading. They recruited 37 participants, 16 of whom had at least a mild fever.

To use FeverPhone, the participants held the phones like point-and-shoot cameras 鈥� with forefingers and thumbs touching the corner edges to reduce heat from the hands being sensed (some had the researcher hold the phone for them). Then participants pressed the touchscreen against their foreheads for about 90 seconds, which the researchers found to be the ideal time to sense body heat transferring to the phone.

Overall, FeverPhone estimated patient core body temperatures with an average error of about 0.41 degrees Fahrenheit (0.23 degrees Celsius), which is in the clinically acceptable range of 0.5 C.

The researchers have highlighted a few areas for further investigation. The study didn鈥檛 include participants with severe fevers above 101.5 F (38.6 C), because these temperatures are easy to diagnose and because sweaty skin tends to confound other skin-contact thermometers, according to the team. Also, FeverPhone was tested on only three phone models. Training it to run on other smartphones, as well as devices such as smartwatches, would increase its potential for public health applications, the team said.

鈥淲e started with smartphones since they鈥檙e ubiquitous and easy to get data from,鈥� Breda said. 鈥淚 am already working on seeing if we can get a similar signal with a smartwatch. What鈥檚 nice, because watches are much smaller, is their temperature will change more quickly. So you could imagine having a user put a Fitbit to their forehead and measure in 10 seconds whether they have a fever or not.鈥�

, a UW professor in the Allen School and the electrical and computer engineering department, was a senior author on the paper, and , an assistant professor in the University of Toronto鈥檚 computer science department, was a co-author. This research was supported by the 天美影视传媒 Gift Fund.

For more information, contact Breda at joebreda@cs.washington.edu. He’ll be traveling for research starting June 23; his availability for interviews will be limited after that.

For questions specifically for Dr. Mastafa Springston, please contact Susan Gregg at sghanson@uw.edu.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the Trust for Governors Island on April 24 that a consortium led by Stony Brook University will found and develop a world-leading climate solutions center on Governors Island in the city鈥檚 harbor. The will be a first-of-its kind international center for developing and deploying dynamic solutions to our global climate crisis.听

The 天美影视传媒 is among the core partners of the consortium, along with Georgia Institute of Technology, Pace University, the Pratt Institute, the Good Old Lower East Side community group, Boston Consulting Group and IBM. Other academic partners include Duke University, Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Oxford.听

鈥淲e are very proud to bring our University鈥檚 deep and diverse strengths in climate and clean energy research and innovation to the New York Climate Exchange,鈥� said UW President Ana Mari Cauce. 鈥淎s the only core partner on the West Coast, we are excited to leverage our regional and global relationships to accelerate efforts to address and adapt to the impacts of climate change. This work is vital and urgent for the health and survival of our people and our world.鈥�听

In addition to convening the world鈥檚 leaders and climate experts, the exchange will host green job training and skills-building programs and partner with local institutions on addressing the social and practical challenges created by climate change.听

鈥淭he UW serves as a global hub for innovative research into climate change action and adaptation, and the resources and relationships provided by the Climate Exchange will help us grow our impact even further,鈥� said Maya Tolstoy, Maggie Walker Dean of the UW College of the Environment. 鈥淭his is a truly exciting partnership, and it presents a fantastic opportunity for us to collaborate with a diverse group of peers across academia, business and community organizations.鈥�听

Tolstoy will serve as the UW鈥檚 representative on the New York Climate Exchange board. The initiative will bring together universities, governments and businesses to address climate change action and adaptation.听

The New York Climate Exchange with 400,000 square feet of green-designed building space, including research labs, classroom space, exhibits, greenhouses, mitigation technologies and housing facilities. The facility will feature:听

• An all-electric-powered campus with onsite solar electricity generation and battery storage with capability to serve the local grid听
• All non-potable water demand met with rainwater or treated wastewater collection听
• 95% of its waste diverted from landfills听
• Climate-resilient design of new buildings, all raised to the design flood elevation of 18 feet above sea level听

鈥淲e are honored, excited, and proud to partner with the City of New York to build this historic center that will cement New York City as the world leader on climate change, the most pressing issue of our time,鈥� said Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis.听

The Exchange鈥檚 activities will include:听

• A Research and Technology Accelerator that will source and nurture ideas, projects and new ventures dedicated to solving the climate crisis听
• Workforce development opportunities for communities disproportionately affected by climate change听听

• Partnerships and collaborative grant opportunities with community-based organizations already working to mitigate the impacts of climate change听
• Academic and community programs that prepare students at every level for careers focused on climate change solutions and environmental justice, encompassing hands-on learning, a semester 鈥渁broad鈥� on Governors Island, fellowship and internship programs and continuing education听

“The UW Clean Energy Institute is proud to bring our expertise in advancing clean energy research, training and stakeholder engagement to the New York Climate Exchange,” said Daniel Schwartz, director of the UW Clean Energy Institute and Boeing-Sutter Professor of Chemical Engineering. “Working as part of this global team, we see great opportunities to accelerate the energy transition through equitable deployment strategies.”听

UW faculty members who worked with UW leadership in the initial planning efforts include Shuyi Chen, UW professor of atmospheric sciences; Dargan Frierson, UW associate professor of atmospheric sciences; Jessica Kaminsky, UW associate professor of civil and environmental engineering; Jonathan Bakker, UW professor of environmental and forest sciences; and Himanshu Grover, UW assistant professor of urban design and planning.

鈥淎lthough built environments are intensely place-based, the systems that they influence are not bound by geography,鈥� said Ren茅e Cheng, dean of the UW College of Built Environments. 鈥淟inking our college’s research and teaching on carbon, water and socio-environmental factors with the New York Climate Exchange will facilitate positive impact at a national and global scale.鈥�听

Many people are now aware of climate change, the need to curb greenhouse gases and to prepare for coming environmental shifts. But knowing how best to prepare can be a challenge, both for individuals and for local agencies.

The 天美影视传媒鈥檚 has released an interactive tool that lets state agencies and local governments see what climate scientists project for their county and what they might want to consider when developing their districts鈥� comprehensive plans.

The tool, released in late 2022, lets users zoom in to their county to see projections for heat, drought, extreme precipitation, flooding, wildfire, sea level rise and reduced snowpack through 2100.

UW News sat down with developer , a research scientist at the UW Climate Impacts Group, to learn more about the new tool and its uses.

Q: We hear about other climate reports, like the international IPCC report or the U.S. National Climate Assessment. How does the Climate Mapping for a Resilient Washington tool fit in?

Matt Rogers: There鈥檚 not really a shortage of climate reports. But a lot of the current tools or reports have a much broader scope 鈥� they look at the entire U.S., or the whole Pacific Northwest. This particular tool focuses on Washington state, and on the information that local governments need to prepare for climate change.

I like to think of this tool as broad in scope, but not necessarily comprehensive in depth. It has a wide variety of different metrics, but it does not explore them in as much depth as our other tools. For example, this tool includes sea-level rise, but not as much information as our specific .

Q: How did this project come about?

MR: The Climate Impacts Group set out to help support climate information needs for updating the . Based on feedback from state agencies, there was clear interest in providing local governments with the climate data, information and resources that they needed to add a climate resilience element to their comprehensive plans. This is the basic information on expected changes in the climate that local governments can use to prepare for climate change.

This tool is new for Washington state. Like the tool in California, it’s meant to give information specific to Washington state that local communities and governments can use to plan for their area 鈥� as opposed to summarizing data over the entire state.

Q: How can people use this tool?

MR: To make the tool more approachable for people who may not frequently work with climate data, we鈥檝e included filters to cut down on the information that you鈥檙e sifting through. For example, if you鈥檙e concerned about water, you can filter to look only at climate indicators that may be particularly important for the water resources sector.

Users can select 30-year time periods from now to 2100 and choose different future emissions scenarios, depending on the trajectory for greenhouse gas emissions.

On the tool鈥檚 map you can click a specific point, and it will give you a specific number for that point. But we do want to caution people that it鈥檚 more appropriate to look over a wider region, like a county, as opposed to a particular point, which can give a false sense of precision.

Many other climate tools only include information on exposure to climate change, or how conditions are changing. This goes one step further and provides some guidance on other information that might be needed to assess climate change impacts. For example: Does your community rely on snowmelt for drinking water or irrigation? Is your population particularly vulnerable to extreme heat events? The tool provides some questions to ponder when looking at these climate indicators and using them to inform local climate resilience planning.

Q: What, generally, can Washington state expect under climate change?

MR: There鈥檚 quite a bit that I can talk about here. Snowpack definitely stands out: There鈥檚 a pretty stark reduction in projected April 1 snowpack, and an associated reduction in summer streamflows, particularly in the lower elevations of the Cascades and Olympic mountains. Those foothills are really where all the snowmelt gets funneled in the spring and summer months.

Another thing that stands out is extreme precipitation. One of the metrics we have in the tool is days with greater than 1 inch of precipitation. Some areas in Western Washington 鈥� for example along the coast and on the western slopes of the Cascades 鈥� stand out for an increase in days with precipitation greater than 1 inch.

We also have an increase in extreme heat events, both in minimum and maximum temperatures. That鈥檚 pretty consistent across the state. Areas at higher elevations will see it less, but otherwise the state is pretty consistently projected to see an increase in extreme heat events.

The last one I鈥檒l mention is wildfires. The likelihood of climate and fuel conditions that support wildfires is projected to increase as temperatures increase, particularly east of the Cascades. But later this century there are projected increases on the west side of the Cascades, as well.

Q: Where does the data used to create these projections come from?

MR: We leveraged the knowledge and expertise of the Climate Impacts Group to compile and curate the best available regional-scale climate projections for the Pacific Northwest. Data comes from different places. For example, we used the Weather Research and Forecasting model’s downscaled developed at the UW, for extreme precipitation. We used streamflow data developed from the project. We use the dataset from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for looking at August stream temperatures.

All those datasets are downscaled. Researchers took the IPCC global climate models, which have a pretty coarse resolution of 1 degree latitude by 1 degree longitude, which doesn鈥檛 leave many data points for Washington. Then they do a statistical analysis or run a regional climate model over a smaller area to get better information over a local region.

Most of the information on this tool is downloadable 鈥� not just the information you can see or pull off the visualization, but also the underlying data. So this tool is also meant to be a resource to access regional climate data.

Q: Who do you foresee as the main audience for this tool?

MR: Our target users are mainly local government planners. Right now in Washington state agencies are encouraged, but not required, to include climate resilience elements in their comprehensive plans. However, there is a that would require climate resilience elements of comprehensive plans. So we could see a lot more need for this tool in the near future.

Q: It can be depressing to see these projections for more heat waves, more wildfires, less snowpack and rising seas. What can communities do with this information?

MR: This is meant to inform local governments so that communities can plan for the future. Let鈥檚 say, for example, you鈥檙e worried about salmon habitat in your particular region, and you鈥檙e curious about stream temperatures, because that has an impact on the spawning cycles of salmon and their ability to reproduce. This tool can give you information about those projected changes so you can identify whether future stream temperatures may be a problem for your area.

As another example, let鈥檚 say you鈥檙e worried about your community鈥檚 ability to respond to extreme heat events. Knowing that extreme heat events are projected to rise, and the different rates of increase in your area, can inform your preparation efforts.

We hope this tool will support efforts to prepare for climate impacts and give local governments the information they need to help preserve ecosystems and save lives.

, a climate adaptation specialist at the UW Climate Impacts Group, led the tool鈥檚 development, with additional support from the University of Idaho鈥檚 Research Data & Computing Services. Development of the tool, which is freely available, was funded by the state of Washington.

For more information, contact Rogers at rawrgers@uw.edu.

The Hans Rosling Center for Population Health at the 天美影视传媒 has achieved LEED Platinum Certification, the highest possible rating, reflecting the university鈥檚 commitment to sustainable building practices.

, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a widely used green building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The Rosling Center is the first building in Washington state to achieve LEED Platinum using the most current criteria, version 4 and version 4.1. The UW’s other LEED Platinum building, the Russell T. Joy building at UW Tacoma, was one of 10 buildings in Washington certified Platinum under version 2.2.

Buildings earn points to achieve LEED certification levels by demonstrating energy savings, reduced water needs, clean indoor air and other measurements. Standout features of the Rosling Center include rainwater collection to flush toilets, shading fins on the east and west fa莽ades, improved accessibility throughout the site and design elements that promote human health. The building earned the most points available in LEED in the energy efficiency category.

鈥淎chieving LEED Platinum in the Rosling Center demonstrates the UW鈥檚 commitment to implementing sustainability best practices,鈥� said Lou Cariello, the UW鈥檚 vice president for facilities. 鈥淭his building was designed to exceed state and local requirements, leading by example. It also shows how sustainable design can create a better experience for the people who use the building.鈥�

The Rosling Center, which debuted as LEED Gold and won a number of industry trade awards, was made possible by a $210 million gift from the听 and $15 million in earmarked funding from the Washington Legislature, as well as funding from the university.听The center is home to the听, the听听(IHME), parts of the听听and the offices of the Population Health Initiative.

Newborns across the United States are . This test is important because it helps families better understand their child’s health, but it’s often not accessible to children in other countries because the screening device is expensive.

A team led by researchers at the 天美影视传媒 has created a new hearing screening system that uses a smartphone and low-cost earbuds instead. The team tested this device with 114 patients, including 52 babies up to 6 months old. The researchers also tested the device on pediatric patients with known hearing loss. Their tool performed as well as the commercial device, and it correctly identified all patients with hearing loss.

The team Oct. 31 in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

“There is a huge amount of health inequity in the world. I grew up in a country where there was no hearing screening available, in part because the screening device itself is pretty expensive,” said senior author , a UW professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. “The project here is to leverage the ubiquity of mobile devices people across the world already have 鈥� smartphones and $2 to $3 earbuds 鈥� to make newborn hearing screening something that’s accessible to all without sacrificing quality.”

Because babies can’t tell doctors whether they can hear a given sound, these tests rely on the mechanics of the ear.

“When an external sound is played, hair cells in the inner ear move and vibrate. The result is a very quiet sound that our instruments can pick up,” said co-author , an associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the UW School of Medicine who practices at “This screening is very sensitive, meaning that if there is a concern about a patient’s hearing, they will be referred for a more thorough evaluation with a specialist.”

For the test, doctors send two different tones into the ear at the same time. Based on those tones, the hair cells in the ear vibrate and create a third tone, which is what the doctors are listening for.

One reason the commercial device is expensive is that its speaker has been designed to play the two tones without any interference. The UW researchers found that they could use affordable earbuds 鈥� where each earbud plays one of the two tones 鈥� instead. The earbuds are connected to a microphone in a probe that can be placed in the patient’s ear. The microphone records any sounds from the ear and sends them to a smartphone for processing.

“As you can imagine, these sounds that are coming out from the ear are very soft, and sometimes it’s hard to hear them over noise in the environment or if the patient is moving their head,” said lead author , a UW doctoral student in the Allen School. “We designed听 algorithms on the phone that help us detect the signal even with all that background noise. These algorithms can run in real time on any smartphone and do not require the latest smartphone models.”

The researchers tested their device at three hearing clinics in the Puget Sound area in the state of Washington. For each test, they tested four different frequencies, which is typical for these types of hearing screenings. Participants ranged in age from a few weeks to 20 years old.

Now the team is working with collaborators to use this tool as part of a newborn hearing screening project in Kenya. The researchers teamed up with a group from the UW global health department, the University of Nairobi and the Kenya Ministry of Health to create the project “Toward Universal Newborn and Early Childhood Hearing Screening in Kenya,” or .

“Right now, this is a prototype that we created. The next challenge is really scaling this up and then working with local experts in each country who are the most familiar with the particular challenges in each situation,” Chan said. “We have an opportunity to really have an impact on global health, especially for newborn hearing. I think it’s pretty gratifying to know that the research we do can help to directly solve real problems.”

Additional co-authors on this paper are , a resident in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the UW School of Medicine; , who worked on this project as a UW doctoral student in the electrical and computer engineering department; , a clinical research coordinator at Seattle Children’s; , a UW affiliate instructor in speech and hearing sciences; and an associate professor of pediatrics in the UW School of Medicine who practices at Seattle Children’s. This research was funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the Washington Research Foundation, the Seattle Children鈥檚 Research Institute, the Seattle Children’s Research Integration Hub, the Pilot Awards Support Fund Program, a Moore Inventor Fellow award and the National Science Foundation.

For more information, contact tune@cs.washington.edu.

Grant numbers: T32DC000018, 10617