Peleg Kremer
Associate Professor · Villanova University
Spatial analysis for just and sustainable urban social-ecological systems. My lab uses GIS, remote sensing, and machine learning to understand how the structure and governance of cities shape who experiences environmental burdens and who receives environmental benefits, with a focus on urban heat, air quality, flooding, green stormwater infrastructure, and equitable access to green space in Philadelphia and beyond.
Active funded research
NSF SCC-IRG · Track 1
Integrating Community Dynamics, Environmental Data, and AI to Advance Green Stormwater Infrastructure Sustainability
NSF DISES
Abating Mobility Equity Gaps Induced by Nuisance Flooding in Underserved Communities
William Penn Foundation
Beyond Land Precarity: Building a Garden Database and Platform to Support Philadelphia Growers
What is new
2026 · Apr
Three Kremer-lab papers at the AAG annual meeting in San Francisco: PGDC’s approach to urban garden preservation, measuring community garden security in Philadelphia, and PM2.5 and chronic disease across 500 US cities.
2026 · Mar
Sensitivity of urban structure-temperature relationships to grid parameterization out in Ecological Informatics with Dennis Weaver and Justin Stewart.
2025 · Oct
WPF Webinar with Craig Borowiak: Roots at Risk: How Secure are Philadelphia Urban Gardens?
2025 · Jul
Began as Associate Editor of Sustainable Cities and Society.
2024 · Dec
Unequal access to social, environmental and health amenities in US urban parks published in Nature Cities (Winkler, Clark, Locke, Kremer et al.).
Research themes
Urban form, heat, and air quality
Urban Structure and the Environment
How the three-dimensional structure of cities shapes the heat residents experience and the air they breathe, from Philadelphia case studies to a global analysis.
Spatial data, AI, and community knowledge
Urban Flooding and Green Infrastructure
Using spatial data, community knowledge, and AI to plan stormwater and flood adaptation that is both effective and equitable.
Community gardens and the right to urban space
Land in Common
Urban vacant land as a generative space, and the Philadelphia Garden Data Collaborative’s work to document and protect community gardens.
Unequal access to urban nature
Environmental Justice and Green Space
Why access to parks and environmental amenities remains unequal, and what fine-scale spatial analysis can change about it.
Spatial infrastructure for urban research
Methods and Tools
The methods, datasets, and platforms the lab builds and maintains across projects: STURLA, mobile air pollution monitoring, and the PGDC platform.