Assessment of Urban Water-Energy Interactions and Heat Island Signatures in Rhode Island

Rhode Island is the smallest and the second-most densely populated state in the USA. It is also one of the most severely affected states on the Eastern Seaboard due to Climate Change. While Rhode Island residents pay some of the highest energy prices in the country, its less resourceful suburban residents around the capital city, Providence, are exposed to harmful heat island effects during the summer months. As water and wastewater utility operators are often the largest energy consumers in American municipalities, water, and energy consumption exhibit directly evident connections in urban environments. In this study, we employ an Urban-Water-Energy (UWE)-Nexus approach to understand water and energy demand and their interactions in both space and time for Rhode Island; we quantify the extent and exposure of the Urban Heat Island effects among its towns and urban populations using high-resolution details.