Part of a global movement to rethink how we allocate street space for vehicles, our team organized a Parking Trivia game and used thermal imaging on UB’s South Campus to evaluate environmental impacts of parking (heat islands) with collaboration from the Building Environment Visualization Lab (BEVL).

Our Environmental Design students and other participants explored the heat of different surfaces with a heat gun; used a handheld heat sensor to complete a scavenger hunt for areas with the highest and lowest temperatures; measured heat, humidity, and wind with a Kestrel Heat Street Tracker; and experimented with other reality capture technology. All of these tools are helping transform how planners document and visualize the built environment to better inform design decisions.