Sciences and Exploration Directorate

Christian V Braneon

(RSCH AST, EARTH SCIENCES REMOTE SENS)

Christian V Braneon's Contact Card & Information.
Email: christian.v.braneon@nasa.gov
Org Code: 611
Address:
NASA/GISS
Mail Code 611
New York, NY 10025
Employer:
NASA

Brief Bio


Dr. Christian V. Braneon is a climate scientist and civil engineer who co-leads urban research at the Climate Impacts Group of NASA GISS. He is currently a co-investigator on a research project that will produce new data products, providing new information and insights on the role of coastal marshes in the global carbon and nutrient cycles. Dr. Braneon co-leads the Environmental Justice and Climate Just Cities Network at The Earth Institute of Columbia University and serves as a principal investigator for the GISS Climate Change Research Initiative.

His primary research at NASA, conducted as part of the NASA-Microsoft partnership, has developed applications of remote sensing data that enhance resilience to urban heat stress. This partnership is one of a series of collaborations between NASA’s Earth Science Division and non-traditional public and private organizations to improve the application of Earth observation data for societal benefits. Dr. Braneon’s research team at GISS uses publicly available archives of satellite imagery and open-source software to evaluate the cooling effects of green infrastructure and characterize the distribution of climate risk.

His agricultural research focuses on using measured agricultural water use along with geostatistical techniques, crop models, and general circulation modeling to assess irrigation demand and the uncertainty associated with demand projections at spatial scales relevant to water resources management. This research has informed the regional water planning in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin shared by Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. 

Dr. Braneon is particularly known for integrating satellite data and climate science into urban planning and civil engineering practice. In 2013, he developed an approach for integrating climate change projections into the Dallas Long Range Water Supply Plan. Recently, he advised the New York City Council’s Data Operations Unit on their data science strategy as they integrated Landsat 8 satellite imagery into their temperature mapping initiatives.

Professional Service


Professional Societies


American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

1999 - Present


Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN)

2017 - Present


American Meteorological Society (AMS)

2019 - Present

Awards


Public Participation Award | White House Climate Action Plan

Team Excellence Award | 2019 Earth Science Partnerships Team, NASA Headquarters

AXA Award for Climate Science | 2021

Robert H. Goddard Honor Award | 2021 Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI) Team

Current Projects


Urban Design Climate Workshops

Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) Urban Design Climate Workshops (UDCWs) aim to integrate and scale-up climate change mitigation and adaptation in cities through knowledge sharing, collaboration, and action planning. These sessions bring together urban designers, urban planners, climatologists, policymakers, stakeholders, and graduate students. Topics of discussion include strengthening urban resilience, improving energy efficiency, and enhancing livelihoods. So far, UDCWs have taken place in New York, Paris, Naples, and Durban


NASA-Microsoft Partnership

Climate

This partnership combines unique technical capabilities to build a new tool to inform local and regional urban heat planning efforts, with the goal of helping cities improve their ability to deal with shocks and long-term stressors associated with extreme heat events. Advanced technologies such as cloud-based data storage, sophisticated analytics, and connected sensors can integrate complex information and provide the insight and scale necessary to increase urban resilience and improve heat-related management decisions.

  • "Collaboration’s Quest: Examine Effects of Urban Heat Actions in Chicago" by USGS, December 2021.
  • "Analyzing Earth's Climate with Capstone Projects" by Microsoft, January 2022.
  • "NASA Researcher Finding Ways to Turn Down the Heat in Cities" by NASA, March 2022.
  • "How green rooftops can help cool off hot cities" by The Hill, March 2022.
  • "Not all green roofs are created equal" by Anthropocene Magazine, March 2022.
  • "As heat waves increase, green roofs could help cool Texas cities" by Texas Climate News, 2022.


Developing Multi-Scale Ensemble Social Vulnerability Models

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the health disparities within Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities across the United States. Vulnerability to all hazards is an alarmingly complex phenomenon where interdisciplinary approaches and indices have sought to further understand its impacts. This study proposes to construct ensemble vulnerability models, borrowing strength from some of the more highly cited indices and creating a single composite representation. The ensembles will be created utilizing two separate methods; Bayesian principal components analysis and convolutional deep self-organizing maps.

  • "Front-line communities face dual threat in climate, COVID-19" by E&E News, April 2020.
  • "Predicting the spread of COVID-19 infection" by IUPUI, July 2020.
  • "Certain social, environmental factors found to increase a community's COVID-19 risk" by IUPUI, August 2021.


Addressing the Urban Heat Island through an Equity Lens

In collaboration with local environmental justice groups, our research team will incorporate a citizen science approach, in which local residents are equipped with the tools and skills to collect temperature related data. Our project aims to leverage past and ongoing efforts to measure near-surface ambient temperature to map and mitigate heat vulnerability and risk.

  • “Meet the New Yorkers Mapping the City’s Heat Islands” by E&E News / Scientific American, August 2021.
  • “To Measure NYC’s Heat Islands, Scientists Recruit Residents in Hardest-Hit Neighborhoods” by City Limits, August 2021.
  • “Study Maps Urban Heat Islands With Focus on Environmental Justice” by The Earth Institute, August 2021.
  • “Scientists map urban heat islands—and track how communities are affected” by Science, August 2021.
  • “Charting a Course to Shrink the Heat Gap Between New York City Neighborhoods” by Inside Climate News, August 2021.
  • "Feeling the Heat" by CNN, September 2021; see 11:55 to 15:35
  • "How Citizen Scientists are Mapping the Hottest Parts of New York City" by Gothamist, October 2021.
  • "The City" by Wonder Media Network, November 2021.
  • "Poor neighborhoods are hotter than rich ones — especially during heat waves" by CNBC, December 2021.
  • "NYC Heat Mapping Study Finds Higher Temps in Lower-Income Neighborhoods" by City Limits, January 2022.
  • "Visiting Professor Christian Braneon employs data science to address inequalities caused by climate change" by Barnard Magazine, 2022.
  • "Data Dive: Heat Mapping New York City and Environmental Justice" by Columbia Climate School, 2022.

Grants


COVID-19 Seasonality and Relationship to Social Vulnerability in Indiana - Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research - Awarded: 2020-07-01


Dates: 2020-07-01  - 2021-07-31

Amount 15,000


Integrating Racial Equity and Climate Justice into Urban Planning and Design - Columbia University - Awarded: 2020-11-01


Dates: 2020-11-01  - 2021-10-31

Amount 10,000


Environmental Justice and Climate Just Cities Network - The Earth Institute | Columbia University - Awarded: 2020-11-01


Dates: 2020-11-01  - 2023-10-31

Amount 50,000


Quantification of Historic and Future Changes in Atlantic Coastal Marshes and Implications for Global Modeling - NASA, Headquarters, Science Mission Directorate, Earth Science (NNH20ZDA001N-OBB) - Awarded: 2020-11-12


Dates: 2021-06-01  - 2024-05-31

Amount 540,000


NPCC-Climate School Fellows Program - The Climate School | Columbia University - Awarded: 2021-10-29


Dates: 2021-11-01  - 2022-10-31

Amount 5,000

Education


PhD in Civil Engineering | Georgia Institute of Technology

MS in Civil Engineering | Georgia Institute of Technology

BS in Civil Engineering | Georgia Institute of Technology

BS in Applied Physics | Morehouse College

Talks, Presentations and Posters


Invited

8th Annual UMD Symposium on Environmental Justice & Health Disparities

September 2022

The first UMD EJ Symposium (as it is informally known) took place on Saturday, December 1, 2012 and was organized by Dr. Sacoby Wilson with support from Mustafa Santiago Ali (then Associate Director of the US EPA Office of Environmental Justice) and Leslie Fields (National Environmental Justice Director for the Sierra Club). While specific topics and sessions vary from year to year, the conference’s overarching focus remains on environmental justice issues (and actions) relevant to the DMV region and beyond. The Symposium theme for 2022 was “Energy vs. Power: Visions for the Future.” Dr. Christian Braneon spoke and participated on a panel during the "ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, REDLINING, AND URBAN HEAT ISLANDS" session. Studies have shown that in nearly every major city in the U.S., BIPOC communities are exposed to more extreme urban heat than White people. Expanses of concrete and reduced canopy cover lead to concentrated heat in urban centers, producing what is known as the “urban heat island effect.” Because of this phenomenon, and the concept of segregated housing stock, cities can vary wildly in temperature on a block by block basis, with the burden of extreme heat falling upon vulnerable communities. In this session, panelists discussed how decades of racist and discriminatory practices and development inequities including redlining have left neighborhoods of color and low-income communities vulnerable to heat and rising temperatures. Panelists discussed the unequal burden of urban heat for communities with environmental justice issues including the lack of salutogenic and climate resilient infrastructure and what actions can be taken to alleviate this burden. In addition, panelists discussed what adaptation and mitigation strategies have been used to address the impacts of and transform urban heat islands. They also discussed some of the best practices that cities and metropolitan regions across the country have used to increase the resilience of populations at risk from heat-related morbidity and mortality.


The 47th Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop

August 2022

The Researchers Meeting was organized by the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Disasters (ISA-RC39) with the support of the Natural Hazards Center and the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) CONVERGE facility at the University of Colorado Boulder. Kathryn McConnell (PhD candidate at Yale) and Dr. Christian Braneon presented their ongoing research on "Social Stratification of the Built Environment" during the Social Vulnerability and Disaster-Related Disparities session.


2022 Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research (ABMR) Meeting

July 2022

The theme of the 2022 meeting was “Healthy Aging Across the Lifespan: The Impact of Socioeconomic Status.” Disparities in health have been widely documented and are accepted to reflect social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage. These preventable disparities disproportionately affect groups of people who systematically experience greater obstacles to health based on their socioeconomic status. The conference examined environmental, sociocultural, behavioral, and biological factors that contribute to lifelong disparities in health and emerging public health challenges. Drawing on the deep expertise of ABMR members, symposium and discussion topics focused on socioeconomic determinants of health, including poverty in early life, environmental exposures, intersectionality and racial health inequity, biological and neurocognitive aging, health behaviors, and implications for intervention and public policy.


Climate and Environmental Justice in Harlem

May 22, 2022

Growing risks of rising temperatures, more intense storms and a history of environmental injustice continue to generate disproportionate climate impacts in communities like Harlem. Local researchers, elected officials and community leaders came together for panel discussions presented by Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Columbia University and City College of New York hosted by NYC & Company’s Sustainable Tourism Committee.


11th Annual Climate Symposium | SUMASA

May 8, 2022

The event addressed how today’s sustainability leaders break away from business-as-usual scenarios through thought-provoking keynotes, informative panels, and solutions-oriented conversations. The Applying Advanced Analytics to Sustainable Solutions panel explored how advanced analytics has been a disruptive force to finding sustainable solutions in various industries. We discussed what key elements are required to integrate these approaches, how to engage all stakeholders, and how modeling has benefited specific projects the panelists have worked on.


Learning in the World: Opportunities for the Students of 2040

May 2022

This seminar sponsored the National Science Foundation and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine focused on creating learning experiences grounded in real-world elements and opportunities. Presentations from students and educators–as well as contributions from participants–provided examples of diverse student learning experiences that leverage lived experience, and how we can design authentic experiences for undergraduates to prepare problem solvers, leaders, and innovators to tackle the multi-faceted problems facing our world. We also discussed approaches to design accessible and engaging real-world student experiences on our campuses.


Heat Mapping Project: Community-Wide Results Release Event

February 13, 2022

In 2021, South Bronx Unite collaborated with researchers from Columbia University to visualize extreme heat in the South Bronx and Northern Manhattan. Extreme heat is the #1 weather-related killer in the US, and Black Americans die at disproportionately higher rates than others. The South Bronx community is no exception to this trend as it suffers from the compounding effects of extreme heat, pollution, and lack of green space all the while climate change looms as a threat multiplier. At this meeting co-hosted by South Bronx Unite and Columbia University, we discussed extreme heat and its links to our community members' health.


Vice President Harris Visits NASA to See Vital Climate Science Work

December 2021

NASA, along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and USGS, is among the federal agencies that conduct climate research and provide climate data critical for agencies and organizations worldwide. Extreme weather and climate events – including droughts, floods, and wildfires – are becoming regular occurrences. Insights from space help us study our planet as a unified system to understand these phenomena and benefit people where they live. The vice president received a firsthand look at how the nation’s space program studies climate change and provides crucial information to understand our planet’s changes and their impacts on our lives. She met with scientists and engineers to discuss how NASA’s broad portfolio of Earth science missions helps address the climate challenges facing our world.


Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit: The Path Forward

November 25, 2021

This virtual and in-person event was anchored from the Nasdaq in New York City and brought together leaders in business, government, academia, and a lot more, who are shaping and defining new dynamics and driving positive change in business and society as a whole.


2021 Resilient Nation Partnership Network (RNPN) Annual Forum

November 20, 2021

Now, more than ever, partnerships are critical to becoming a more resilient nation. Actions we take now will make a difference as we adapt to, and mitigate, the impacts of climate change. The Resilient Nation Partnership Network is committed to taking collaborative action and is proud to announce the Sixth Annual Partnership Forum, "Alliances for Climate Action", in partnership with FEMA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The theme for October 20 was Stories to Inspire Climate Action. We heard diverse stories and perspectives from amazing individuals and how they found their place as a leader addressing climate change.


Back to Earth: Climate Adaptation and Mitigation with NASA

November 14, 2021

Future Cities Canada, the national cross-sector initiative designed to accelerate innovation to transform cities, presents its final virtual gathering on October 13 - 15, 2021, as part of Future Cities Canada: The Summit. This session explores how satellite data and other cutting-edge programs developed by NASA are helping municipalities and corporations make better on the ground decisions towards climate change adaptation and mitigation. Dr. Christian V. Braneon, Remote Sensing Specialist at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and Dr. Lesley E. Ott, Climate Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center discuss the new tools and technologies that have been developed over the years, and how they are being used to advance major innovations in climate science.


Global Maritime Forum

October 2021

Organized and executed by the Science and Technology Department (S&T) on behalf of the Director, NIM-Maritime, the Global Maritime Forum (GMF) was a three-day workshop designed to stimulate discussion and action on solutions to complex issues of technology and its effects on national maritime policy.


Eyes on Earth Episode 55 – Urban Heat Islands of New York

August 26, 2021

Eyes on Earth is a podcast on remote sensing, Earth observation, land change and science, brought to you by the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. Landsat satellites collect data on surface temperature and vegetative change that can help cities mitigate the heat stresses for residents, especially in a warming climate. For this episode of Eyes on Earth, we hear about how a mapping project involving Landsat data helped the New York City Council identify urban heat islands.


Post-COVID Cities: Reinventing World Cities

July 10, 2021

“Reinventing Global Cities” was the second in a series of three high-profile events titled Post-COVID Cities, which focuses on the future of New York City following the pandemic. During this program, participants learned how other global cities currently emerging from the pandemic are positioning themselves to reach aspirational social goals while implementing 21st-century zero-carbon policies.


Future Streets: Lessons & Paths Forward from Open Streets

June 10, 2021

A conversation with community leaders, designers, advocates, and policymakers to discuss the future of Open Streets in New York City. Emily Weidenhof (NYC DOT) and Erick Gregory (NYC City Planning) joined as respondents in conversation with Dr. Christian Braneon to discuss: what lessons can we draw from last summer’s Open Streets to catalyze creative street uses? This event was co-hosted by Columbia University Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes, Transportation Alternatives, the Urban Design Forum, Van Alen Institute, and Columbia Environmental Justice and Climate Just Cities Network.


Towards Climate Justice and Equitable Adaptation

June 6, 2021

The UW Environmental and Occupational Health Seminar is a department-sponsored seminar series for students, staff and faculty; practicing professionals in the environmental and occupational health fields; and the public. This seminar highlights the rich diversity of the department and is an opportunity to hear from locally, nationally and internationally known scientists, practitioners and policymakers on issues of current scientific importance. The University of Washington’s School of Public Health houses several different disciplinary specialties, including toxicology, exposure science, one health, occupational health, and occupational and environmental medicine. 


Expert Meeting | National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine

December 2020

Although climate change will have a significant impact on the cities of the future, traditional demographic and health behavioral data and demographic methods are insufficient to fully understand the consequences of these changes for the health and well-being of city dwellers. To explore this further, an small expert planning meeting was held to identify directions for a larger NASEM activity that would bring together the downscale climate modeling research community, climate and health researchers, demographers, public health practitioners, and policy planners to advance the methodologies through which modelers study future temperature extremes and related-health risks, the urban environment, population vulnerability, and health/mortality outcomes.  


Climate Justice in NYC: A Discussion with Climate Change and Environmental Justice Leaders

October 2020

A conversation about how NYC as a city will advance its climate and environmental justice agendas in the short, medium and long term. This session was presented by Tishman Environment and Design Center


Extreme Heat, COVID, & Equity in New York City

July 2020

The Cary Institute organized a science conversation in June of 2020 featuring Emily Nobel Maxwell, Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Cities Program in New York, Christian Braneon, a Remote Sensing Specialist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Annel Hernandez, Associate Director of the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance, and Timon McPhearson, Director of the Urban Systems Lab and a Cary Institute Senior Research Fellow.


Leveraging Our Strengths: An Open Call for Science, Advocacy, and Design

July 2020

This AIA New York event presented the 2020 NYC Environmental Justice Alliance’s Climate Justice Agenda, followed by a response from climate scientists, designers, and urban planning experts. Discussions focused on key challenges and opportunities to protect vulnerable communities against the upcoming 2020 hurricane and heat wave season, as New York deals with successive waves of the COVID-19.


The Future We Don't Want: A Call for Transformative Action

June 13, 2019

In conjunction with Design Pavilion, Design Talks is a fascinating and culturally relevant conversation and story series featuring architecture, design, art and civic visionaries and creative leaders. In its fifth year, the program returned in 2019 with a full-day kick off, the Design Talks Impact Summit, a forum for all industries committed to designing a sustainable and circular future. Dr. Christian Braneon shared some of the unique risks that climate change poses to cities and urban responses to those risks through case study examples from real-world experiences.


Chongming World-class Eco-island Forum 2018

September 2018

Chongming Island, located in the mouth of the Yangtze River across from Shanghai, China, was both the topic and site of a scientific forum organized by East China Normal University (ECNU) and Columbia University August 6–8. Eight scientists from the Earth Institute at Columbia University attended the forum, together with Adam Parris, executive director of the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay (SRI@JB) and Dr. Christian Braneon of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). 

Other

Selected Publications


Refereed

2022. "Building Risk‐Informed Communities: Case Studies on the Applications of Earth Observation Data." Geophysical Monograph Series 119-132 [10.1002/9781119536789.ch7] [Article in Book]

2022. "Sea Level Rise and City-Level Climate Action." European Journal of Environment and Public Health 6 (2): em0111 [10.21601/ejeph/12046] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Embedding Climate Change in Urban Planning and Urban Design in New York City." Urban Climate Science for Planning Healthy Cities 45-70 [10.1007/978-3-030-87598-5_3] [Article in Book]

2022. "A quasi-experimental approach for evaluating the heat mitigation effects of green roofs in Chicago, Illinois." Sustainable Cities and Society 76 103376 [10.1016/j.scs.2021.103376] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Adaptation to climate change in coastal towns of between 10,000 and 50,000 inhabitants." Ocean & Coastal Management 212 105790 [10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2021.105790] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Towards Disentangling Lockdown-Driven Air Quality Changes in the Northeastern U.S." Journal of Extreme Events 2150017 [10.1142/s2345737621500172] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Spatiotemporal Associations Between Social Vulnerability, Environmental Measurements, and COVID‐19 in the Conterminous United States." GeoHealth 5 (8): [10.1029/2021gh000423] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Rapid Research and Assessment on COVID-19 and Climate in New York City." Journal of Extreme Events 2150010 [10.1142/s234573762150010x] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Opinion: Compound risks and complex emergencies require new approaches to preparedness." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 (19): e2106795118 [10.1073/pnas.2106795118] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Evaluating Drought Responses of Surface Ozone Precursor Proxies: Variations With Land Cover Type, Precipitation, and Temperature." Geophysical Research Letters 48 (7): [10.1029/2020gl091520] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "Earth Observations Informing Cities’ Operations and Planning." Eos 101 [10.1029/2020eo146808] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "Chapter 4.2 States and cities for climate action. [In America's Zero Carbon Action Plan]." America's Zero Carbon Action Plan 122-161 [Report]