About CHAMP

Efforts to ensure the health of human and natural components of urban areas to climate system variability, such as extreme heat events, and climate change require comprehensive, process-based knowledge and quality data. As an interdisciplinary team of researchers from environmental sciences, environmental and public health, urban ecology, and civil and environmental engineering, we have the expertise and capacity to address the nexus of climate and health throughout the urbanized mosaic of New Jersey. Our current seed project, funded under the auspices of the Rutgers Office of Research’s Research Incubator in Climate and Health, includes the following main objectives:

1. Collecting and synthesizing existing and new environmental, public health, and urban ecosystem data sets that inform understanding of heat impacts on urban communities;
2. Quantifying the spatial and temporal variability and scales at which human and natural communities experience chronic urban heat and extreme heat wave events;
3. Assessing the efficacy of greenspaces and green-gray infrastructure in mitigating the negative consequences exposure to extreme heat on human and natural communities in cities.

Currently, we are focusing on the city of Camden, New Jersey. A core ongoing activity involves establishing and maintaining neighborhood-scale meteorological monitoring “micronets” within Camden that will allow for more precise quantification of urban heat exposure. Our first such micronet, deployed in summer 2024, centers on the Parkside neighborhood.