Urban Ecological Research with Drones

How we use drones to uncover hidden sources of air pollution In Almaty, official statistics suggest a 99% gasification rate. But recent research using PMF and HYSPLIT models reveals the chemical “fingerprint” of winter smog—the contribution from solid fuel combustion is significant: private household heating — 16% (Combined with local boilers and heating plants, fuel combustion reaches 34% during the heating season.) So if the pipes are there—why is the smoke still here? Last month, we at Almaty Air Initiative / Taza Initiative deployed drones across the Almaty Region—the surrounding suburbs that often remain blind spots for urban monitoring. Our hypothesis: 1. Pollution is partly “imported” into the city. Emissions from surrounding settlements flow directly into the Almaty bowl but remain largely invisible in city-level monitoring. 2. Gas access does not mean gas usage. High connection costs keep households on coal, even in “gasified” zones. 3. A part of the city doesn’t exist in the data. Thousands of unregistered households are missing from official databases—but not from the air. 4. Coal-fired banyas are an overlooked source. Around 30% of households report having them, creating significant, unregulated PM2.5 emissions. We mapped 1.4 km² using high-resolution orthophotomaps and thermal maps, identifying hundreds of emission sources—chimneys not captured in official systems. At 90–110 meters, chimneys occupy too few pixels to reliably measure exact temperatures, especially given varying material properties. But even this first iteration shows: technology can reveal what official data misses. We are now exploring more advanced approaches to turn this into actionable insights for policy and infrastructure decisions. If you’re working on similar technologies—or want to collaborate—reach out.

We keep saying the next generation will save us. Jeffrey Chang is teaching them how. In the middle of schoolyards facing extreme heat, students in #HongKong are using drones, sensors, and climate models to track the problem for themselves, not hypothetically, but with real data, in real time. This week, I’m therefore proud to spotlight Jeffrey’s work as part of my summer series. He’s a young geographer, urban climatology researcher, and founder of GeogSTEM Education Limited and he’s building one of the most relevant education models I’ve seen in climate adaptation. His project Micro Campus turns secondary schools into living laboratories. Students learn how to measure microclimates, detect urban hotspots, and understand social vulnerability. They’re not just learning about climate, they’re engaging with it, critically and locally. Jeffrey isn’t publishing for a shelf. He’s building tools that meet the crisis where it lands: • Drone-based thermal mapping • Citizen-powered heat audits • Schoolyard strategies that feed back into city planning. Because climate isn’t abstract anymore. It’s reshaping rooftops, playgrounds, and the uneven surfaces we walk every day. And we need educators, designers, and systems that reflect that reality. Jeffrey is one of them. If you’re working in climate, education, research, or policy — reach out to Jeffrey Chang directly. His approach is innovative, scalable, and exactly the kind of thinking we need more of. Next week, I’ll share the third voice in this series — more brilliant, quiet work worth seeing. #UrbanHeat #CitizenScience #UrbanClimate #SummerSpotlight #PassTheMic

We are pleased to announce our newest published peer-reviewed publication, entitled: "On the use of UAV-thermal imaging for CFD validation of urban thermal microclimate", published in the journal Sustainable Cities & Society, by Elsevier. Here we used UAV for thermal imaging & CFD validation in urban overheating studies. Open access article here: https://lnkd.in/e5rYvHnq First author: Anto Moediartianto. Well done Anto! The project was performed in partnership with Ansys, part of Synopsys Inc, represented by Thierry Marchal. Thank you Thierry for your support for this research. #research #science #aerospace #engineering #civil #mechanical #uav #drone #urban #heat #overheating #cfd #fieldmeasurement #buildings #city #cities Heriot-Watt University KU Leuven

Great digital twin use case: tree twin. I consider this a type of health twin. Mapping green spaces is a well known method for assessing urban area development. A twin of tree and grass cover in urban spaces could take this a step further, by regularly capturing green spaces from satellite and drone imagery, and incorporating real time health metrics. Beyond coverage, trained models can identify many types of trees, changes in coverage, changes in colour and thickness (health and seasonal). City greenery teams can be alerted early to areas that need attention, to reduce maintenance cost and prevent unplanned attrition. New developments can be assessed in terms of potential impact, positive and negative, and simple simulation tools can provide inputs to urban planning processes. Adjacent health metrics to explore include direct temperature of ground and air, from fixed and mobile sensors, as well as local co2, to begin to map and extract correlations between green and heat, green and air etc. #digitaltwin #ai #infrastructure