#35 - Yannick Back: The answers are beyond the "clouds" - the water-energy link for climate adaptation in a world of data ubiquity

Yannick Back, Research Fellow at the Unit of Environmental Engineering, Innsbruck University shares an alternative way of looking at planning for urban heat mitigation, which is the intrinsic link between water and energy fluxes. We discuss how Yannick has harnessed the power of remote sensing (both aerial and satellite data sets) and geographic information systems to develop new ways of assessing and mitigating urban heat in cities. We also hear Yannick's take on what is needed for alpine areas and the world to adapt to the challenges of climate change.

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and Ice Hockey
5:16 Austria, not to be confused with Australia
11:46 Getting into urban heat
18:33 How a geographer integrates with engineers
26:41 The rapid fine-scale approach and thermal comfort
35:20 Adding computational fluid dynamics
38:59 Surface energy fluxes - an alternative perspective to heat
45:27 Is there a “magic” number for urban heat mitigation?
50:31 The essential ink between water and energy
54:07 Key future challenges for alpine regions
55:58 The global data availability question
58:37 Yannick’s future research plans
1:00:34 Urban climate models vs. data ubiquity
1:02:51 Q&A Start
1:03:13 What inspires you?
1:05:18 Key event, person, book
1:07:57 If you had a magic wand?
1:11:04 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:14:59 Time management
1:17:08 Advice for young researchers
1:17:52 Where can people reach you?
1:18:58 Final Message
1:21:39 Outro

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