VWU students using a thermal imaging camera for heat mapping.
Virginia Wesleyan University|Courtesy
Kyla Robberecht|Marlin Chronicle
As the federal government reviews existing government grants, a grant that Dr. Elizabeth Malcolm, professor of Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences and director of Sustainability, secured last year has been paused.
In reaction to the grant being paused, senior and Environmental Studies major Jessica Wilson said, “It’s already directly impacting us.”
The grant would go toward studying and targeting solutions for urban heat islands in Portsmouth. Urban heat islands are areas with increased heat compared to their surroundings resulting from urban development.
It is unknown whether the grant will be reinstated, though its resources have already progressed research and efforts.
Before funding paused, the project produced heat maps and collected volunteers interested in mitigating urban heat islands.
Malcom spent the first year of the grant connecting with the community and measuring the temperature conditions in the area.
The grant allowed Malcom to hire a graduate student, Faith Bush, to manage volunteers collecting data.
Volunteers collected data by driving heat sensors throughout Portsmouth and recording the temperature at different areas. They sent this information to an external company, CAPA Strategies, which used the data to map these areas and identified where urban heat islands were the most severe.
The heat mapping results indicated that developed areas tend to be warmer than less developed areas on average, due to the urban heat island effect.
CAPA Strategies|Courtesy
The second year of the funding was intended to pay for trees to lower the impact of urban heat islands. “We haven’t done any planting yet, but we did the heat map, so that’s where I got paused,” Malcolm said.
Funding from the grant is received when the university submits the receipts for expenses related to the program. Currently, over $56,000 have been reimbursed from the first year of the grant. Malcolm said this money will be paid back to the university, but it is possible that funds will not be available for the second year of the program.
The Virginia Department of Forestry funded the grant with federal support from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The grant came from a state organization, but federal payment pause also impacted it.
Grant recipients were informed by Rob Farrell, director of the Virginia Department of Forestry and a state forester, that the Virginia Department of Forestry, “recommends grantees stop incurring additional expenses as soon as you are able.”
Students showed concern for the grant being paused by arranging a walk out on March 7 to protest scientific endeavors being interrupted on the federal level. This demonstration, “Stand up for Science,” occurred at locations nationwide including Virginia Wesleyan’s campus.
“It feels really hard to hear that kind of news and then just move on with the lesson about the super specifics of nutrient and carbon cycling without addressing how the possibility of it being applied is on hold,” Wilson said.
Despite the unknown status of the grant, the funding and work put into the research have already produced results for Portsmouth and Virginia Wesleyan. Students are still involved with the data collected with this project through independent research.
“We haven’t done any planning yet, but we did the heat map, so that’s where I got paused.”
Professor of Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Dr. Elizabeth Malcolm
By Clay Yokom
kayokom@vwu.edu
