Google introduces a new heat-resistant tool fueled by artificial intelligence
Google has recently unveiled a new heat resilience tool, aiming to help cities combat the effects of rising summer temperatures. The tool, which is part of Google's expanding suite of climate adaptation assets, includes flood monitoring, wildfire tracking, and now heat resilience. According to Mansi Kansal, a research product manager at Google, the hope is that cities will leverage the data provided by the heat resilience tool to implement cooling interventions. Kansal highlighted the importance of addressing heat as a 'silent killer' that impacts human health more subtly compared to visible disasters like hurricanes and floods. The heat resilience tool provides detailed maps with information about average summer surface temperatures, census tracts, and the presence or absence of trees and cool roofs in any given neighborhood. Recently, Google has been piloting this tool in 14 cities, including Miami-Dade County. Miami-Dade County plans to use the information from the heat resilience tool to develop policies encouraging developers to take heat mitigation measures. Kansal also mentioned that limited funding is a barrier cities often face, and Google hopes that using the quantifiable data from the tool, cities can apply for grant funding. Cities can use the heat resilience tool to target cooling interventions such as cool roofs, which have been found to reduce peak energy demand for cooling by up to 27%. Google's tool now provides data about the roof reflectance of individual roofs, in addition to previous information about average summer surface temperatures, census tracts, and the presence or absence of trees and cool roofs. The launch of Google's heat resilience tool marks a renaissance of climate resilience tools in the climate tech space. Startups are also providing various climate-related services such as wildfire monitoring and climate risk assessments. Registration for the Power Resilience Forum 2026 is available, and the event is scheduled to take place in Houston, TX from January 21-23, 2026. Leaders from the power sector will discuss grid resilience in the face of extreme weather at this forum. Early bird pricing for the Power Resilience Forum 2026 ends on October 1. The idea for Google's climate adaptation tools was conceived over a decade ago, inspired by a Google employee's realization of the lack of easily accessible information for monitoring wildfires. This new heat resilience tool uses artificial intelligence, satellite, and aerial imagery to provide cities with data about summer surface temperatures. However, there are no search results available that specify which cities Google has selected for its pilot project using an AI-based heat resilience tool with satellite and aerial imagery. It remains to be seen which cities will join Miami-Dade County in using this tool to combat the effects of rising summer temperatures.
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