Hwang Byeong Mook, Ph.D. candidate, and Ko Chan Woo, Ph.D. candidate (advisor: Professor Ko Dong Wook), affiliated with the Landscape Ecology Laboratory, Department of Forest Resources, Graduate School, Kookmin University, and Im Do Hyuk (Master's Program, Advisor: Kang Wan Mo) were selected for the ‘2025 Seoul Data Fellowship’ hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Data Strategy Division. They further achieved the distinction of receiving the Grand Prize (Seoul Mayor's Award) in the final evaluation.

The research team received high praise for their project titled ‘Deriving Optimal Locations for Cooling Roads and Simulation Research Focused on Vulnerable Areas to Address the Urban Climate Crisis’. Their work combined spatial analysis using Seoul's large-scale urban data with policy implications.

The primary basis for the award was the team's integrated analysis of vulnerable groups within urban heat islands, residential population, road structure, land cover, and thermal environment variables to quantitatively determine priority locations for cooling road installation. They then precisely verified the cooling effect at each installation site through 3D microclimate model simulations.

Conducted over eight months from April 2025, this research aimed to propose a direction for data-driven urban climate adaptation policies. It developed a scientific policy framework capable of simultaneously mitigating the urban climate crisis and improving the thermal environment as perceived by citizens.

Furthermore, the study demonstrated its scalability and policy applicability by incorporating diverse urban ecological perspectives, including spatial equity in cooling road installation, strategies for protecting heat island vulnerable areas, and the potential for structural improvements in the urban thermal environment.

Professor Go Dong Wook, the supervising professor, stated, “This research is highly significant as it integrates and analyzes multi-layered urban ecological environment data—including urban forests, green spaces, climate, and resident population—to propose scientific adaptation strategies for the era of urban climate crisis.” He further evaluated, “It will serve as crucial foundational data for concretizing urban thermal environment mitigation policies and urban green infrastructure development strategies, and can be expanded into interdisciplinary convergence research.”