Pilot 2027: Global URBAN HEAT Media Lab
At Pedestrian Space, we are developing the ‘Sustainable Urbanism & Planetary Health’ program and curriculum, with activities piloting in 2026 with collaborators in cities worldwide.
As part of this program, we are expanding our outreach and engagement with a pilot focused on the topic and issue of URBAN HEAT.
We welcome diverse forms of collaboration for this pilot, including with students, municipalities, educators, researchers, fellow organizations, and more.
We announced this pilot on LinkedIn on July 22, 2026, here, and were impressed by the flood of responses, which also illustrates how critical and widespread the issue is. Many university students, scholars, and professionals have written to collaborate and participate, conveying, I believe, the great interest and commitment that people specializing in urban issues have for this critical issue.
Due to such a tremendous response as well as due to the reality that we are an NGO and platform focused on the intersection of media, research, communication and public engagement, for this pilot, we are planning a network approach and a ‘Global URBAN HEAT Media Lab’.
The Lab will include, but not be limited to:
- Documenting municipal barriers, insights, and strategies for mitigating and reducing urban heat
- Community-engaged research and projects that document the lived experiences and observations of residents adapting to urban heat
- Media outreach and public engagement in shaping awareness on issues of urban heat
- Co-creation of activities and exercises for educators to engage students in co-learning on issues of urban heat
- Academic internships on diverse issues of urban heat
- Case studies of cities and regions
We welcome collaborators from around the world, understanding the issue of urban heat as one of escalating urgency, affecting environmental and ecological health, public health, migration of species (including humans), daily quality of life, and increasingly testing the viability of our ‘habitats’.
We also host academic interns at Pedestrian Space. If you are a student starting to think about your 2027 academic internship and interested in issues of urban heat, please feel free to explore the mission of Pedestrian Space and contact us if you are interested in pursuing an Urban Heat-related internship.
We welcome students from diverse disciplines as we encourage the exploration and study of a range of issues of urban resilience via different disciplinary lens.
-Annika, Founder at Pedestrian Space
URBAN HEAT TALKS WITH COLLABORATORS
The following recordings are ‘snapshots’ from conversations we have been having with individuals who have written to participate in the Pedestrian Space URBAN HEAT pilot program 2027.
Stay tuned as we continuously update this page with recordings that are meant to highlight the diverse expertise, interests, and passions that individuals worldwide who are writing to us have for committing energy to working on intersecting issues of urban resilience and environmental health.
Eva Chauveau is an Urban Planner in Atlanta, Georgia, and also in the process of getting an MSc in Global Development from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is working on an Urban Heat Mitigation and Action Plan for DeKalb County and joins the Global URBAN HEAT Media Lab and network as she gathers data for their Action Plan, also viewing the network as an amazing learning opportunity to better understand how to synthesize strategies for regions facing an urban heat crisis.
Read more on the August 2026 talk with Eva here
Niger-based Hamissou Saminou is a PhD Student in Climate Change and Human Habitat at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria. His work examines how migration-driven urbanization and land-use and land-cover change influence urban heat island effects in Lagos, Nigeria, and Niamey, Niger. He joins the Global URBAN HEAT Media Lab pilot program and network to enhance his interdisciplinary knowledge on issues of urban heat and also to share a West African experience on urban heat.
Read more on the August 2026 talk with Hamissou here
Julia is an incoming master’s student at Columbia Climate School, where she will focus on climate adaptation and mitigation measures, such as public transportation implementation. For the Pedestrian Space Global URBAN HEAT Media Lab project, she is looking into intersecting issues of urban heat, public transportation, environmental justice, heat mitigating infrastrcure and NYC/NYC policies for heat mitigation.
Read more on the August 2026 talk with Julia here
Gunjit reflects that: ‘As a future urban professional, I believe cities are the places where the fight against climate change will be won or lost. For me, this internship offers a fresh view on urban heat resilience, focusing not solely on infrastructural solutions but actually centering the community at its forefront with education, engagement and experiences.‘
Read more on the August 2026 talk with Gunjit here
For her collaboration with our 2027 Global URBAN HEAT Media Lab, Anushey intends to explore the relationship between heritage conservation in Lahore and urban heat, looking into whether Lahore’s historic architecture already embodies climate-responsive design that contemporary planning can learn from.
Read more on the August 2026 talk with Anushey here
Dylan connected to Pedestrian Space via the promotion of our URBAN HEAT pilot program with an interest in contributing a Global South perspective to the work. We look forward to collaboration and to also spotlighting Cape Town as a case study in the pilot.
Read more on the August 2026 talk with Dylan here
Yiheng Ye noted, “I am particularly drawn to Pedestrian Space’s approach of exploring walkability in a transdisciplinary manner, and I would be excited to apply my own perspectives from urban sustainability, the effects of urban heat on pedestrians, and adaptive measures to build climate resilience in cities.”
Read more on the July 2026 talk with Yiheng here
Boaz’s Master’s thesis focus, designed to directly support our 2027 Urban Heat curriculum pilot, is on “Climate-Proofing Proximity: A Spatial and Lived-Experience Assessment of 15-Minute Neighborhood Accessibility Under Urban Heat Stress.”
Read more on the July 2026 talk with Boaz here
Through the pilot, Bethelhem looks forward to collaborating on awareness-raising activities across different groups, as well as co-creating educational resources that help raise awareness of the impacts of urban heat and the importance of designing cooler, healthier, and more walkable cities. She will also establish Ethiopia as one of the case studies for the Urban Heat Pilot.
Read more on the July 2026 talk with Addis Ababa-based Bethelhem here
Through the pilot, Maureen seeks to center her knowledge and expertise on issues in sub-Saharan African cities, facilitate the exchange of insights with other Africa-based collaborators and globally, and help center crucial public engagement and awareness-building on issues of urban heat.
Read more on the July 2026 talk with Nairobi-based Maureen here