Mehdi Heris is an Assistant Professor in Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College. His broad research interest is connecting urban ecosystems and planning policies. He studies how urban form regulations and planning procedures impact environmental qualities such as urban heat. Mehdi teaches geospatial data analysis and urban form regulations, and mentors students in using GIS and programming for planning applications.

As an expert in the application of geospatial sciences in urban environments, he has done extensive research on the environmental benefits (heat mitigation, rainfall interception, and air quality) of urban trees by building open-source national-scale models. He has published several datasets including a national rasterized building dataset, and Denver’s tree cover.

Mehdi collaborates with city planners in multiple cities including the City of New York, Denver, CO, and Cambridge, MA to develop policies regarding heat mitigation and green infrastructure. His work has been published in Landscape and Urban PlanningJournal of Planning Education and Research; Scientific DataRemote Sensing; and Regional Studies, Regional Science.