Aug 3, 2023
“My summer research project, supervised by Professor Tenley Conway, will examine people’s perceptions of the urban trees they encounter in parks to understand the social benefits of trees in our cities. I will be conducting 100 intercept surveys of adults to gather the aforementioned data and analyzing the responses. The surveying sites will be in the York Regional Forests in Whitchurch-Stouffville. My research is pivotal in advancing nature-based solutions in cities—solutions that will mitigate climate change by maintaining tree-canopy and creating resilient communities of environmental stewards.”
Aug 3, 2023
“This is my second summer as an undergraduate researcher with SOCAAR – the Southern Ontario Centre for Atmospheric Aerosol Research. As a continuation of my project from last year, I am investigating a phenomenon known as the ‘Holiday Effect’, which measures anthropogenic emission changes during various holiday seasons. Specifically, I am interested in conducting an analysis of nitrogen oxides (NOx) during the winter break. An additional avenue of my research is to compare methodology in determining a consistently effective approach to calculate emission change percentages. As a novel area of study and one that has yet to be well-researched in Canada, let alone, North America, the aim of my research is to provide insight into the impact travel and traffic pollutants produce.”
Aug 3, 2023
“Currently working with Professor Debra Wunch and her team on quantifying greenhouse gas emissions in the GTA. We are looking into data from various ground-based and satellite sensors to determine the distribution of emissions over Toronto, ensure that the city is on track to meet its environmental goals, and to investigate the existence of relationships between site demographics and emission levels.”
Aug 3, 2023
Methane is a greenhouse gas that has 28 times the global warming potential of CO2 over the first 100 years of entering the atmosphere. Reducing methane emissions will therefore have an immediate impact on climate change. To this end, correctly quantifying methane emissions is a crucial step towards slowing the earth’s heating rate. For my summer project, I am identifying, measuring, and analyzing atmospheric methane concentrations across Toronto using a mobile survey system, planning routes in an equitable manner over diverse neighborhoods. For this project, I ride a bicycle with the mobile system attached around different areas and publish the data to a public website. In one of my rides around Ashbridges Bay, I identified a plume close to the main sewage treatment plant. Finding places such as this will help identify methane emitters and allow the City of Toronto to better focus its future policies and efforts on methane emission reduction to ensure a net-zero future for all.
Aug 3, 2023
“I am a 3rd year direct-entry PhD student in the Department of Physics and I am a member of the Wunch research group. My research focuses on investigating fluxes of carbon dioxide to and from vegetation within the Greater Toronto Area using measurements of solar induced fluorescence (light emitted by plants during photosynthesis) and vegetation models. I will also use satellite and ground-based measurements of carbon dioxide with the estimated fluxes from vegetation to obtain a better estimate of both Toronto’s anthropogenic and biogenic carbon dioxide emissions. In the future, I plan to apply this method to other urban areas within Canada.”
Aug 3, 2023
Jon-Paul is a PhD candidate in the Department of Physics under the supervision of Prof. Debra Wunch. His research focuses on estimating anthropogenic methane emissions using satellite measurements. He is developing a new data-driven technique for inferring emissions from cities by leveraging coincident measurements of other greenhouse gases. He is also investigating regional methane fluxes in Southern Ontario with chemical transport modelling and inversions of satellite observations.
Aug 3, 2023
“I am segmenting vegetation patches from urban backgrounds in GTA, estimating their current carbon fixing capacities, and exploring their potential under futural environmental settings using deep learning and ecological modeling.”
Aug 2, 2023
Lih Wei’s research examines the economic and material use implications of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks to inform policymaking in the tough-to-decarbonize sector. By integrating life cycle and techno-economic assessment tools and material flow analyses, the research findings will have broad applications across regions seeking to mitigate emissions from the economically-vital sector in line with climate targets.
Aug 2, 2023
Ground transportation is one of the main sectors responsible for global energy-related anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In Canada, the transport sector accounted for about 25% of total GHG emissions in 2019 and Canadian light-duty vehicles (LDVs) are larger and less fuel efficient compared to most other countries[1], posing challenges to Canada’s climate mitigation plans, and requiring ambitious policies to facilitate transitions to low-carbon transportation. The proposed study aims to provide a quantitative assessment of the projected low-carbon transitions in Canada’s LDV transportation by modelling and comparing budgets and emissions estimated from life cycle assessment (LCA) under different mitigation scenarios/pathways.
Aug 2, 2023
“Pavements in cities impact Urban Heat Islands (UHI) by altering heat absorption and release, affecting local microclimates. Variations in pavement attributes, such as color, material, and roughness, greatly influence urban microclimate intensity. This amplifies energy demand for nearby buildings, particularly during summer when air conditioning usage rises. My research investigates the link between pavement attributes and building energy demand in Toronto, aiming to enhance knowledge on optimal paving design to reduce the city’s energy consumption.”
