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GEOGRAPHY OPTIONAL N-2 HANDOUT By – Md. Rizwan Ahmed
URBAN HEAT ISLAND
Definition
Around half of the world’s human population lives in urban areas. In the near
future it is expected that the global rate of urbanization will increase by 70% of
the present world urban population by 2030, as urban agglomerations emerge
and population migration from rural to urban/suburban areas continues.
Thereby, it is not surprising that the negative impacts related to urbanization is
an increasing concern capturing the attention of people worldwide.
Urbanization negatively impacts the environment mainly by the production of
pollution, the modification of the physical and chemical properties of the
atmosphere, and the covering of the soil surface. Considered to be a cumulative
effect of all these impacts is the UHI, defined as the rise in temperature of any
man-made area, resulting in a well-defined, distinct "warm island" among the
"cool sea" represented by the lower temperature of the area’s nearby natural
landscape (figure 1). Though heat islands may form on any rural or urban area,
and at any spatial scale, cities are favoured, since their surfaces are prone to
release large quantities of heat. Nonetheless, the UHI negatively impacts not
only residents of urban-related environs, but also humans and their associated
ecosystems located far away from cities. In fact, UHIs have been indirectly
related to climate change due to their contribution to the greenhouse effect, and
therefore, to global warming.
An urban heat island, or UHI, is a metropolitan area that's a lot warmer than
the rural areas surrounding it. Heat is created by energy from all the people,
cars, buses, and trains in big cities like New York, Paris, and London. Urban
heat islands are created in areas like these: places that have lots of activity and
lots of people.
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Causes
It is well-known that the progressive replacement of natural surfaces by
builtsurfaces, through urbanization, constitutes the main cause of UHI
formation. Natural surfaces are often composed of vegetation and moisture-
trapping soils. Therefore, they utilize a relatively large proportion of the
absorbed radiation in the evapotranspiration process and release water vapour
that contributes to cool the air in their vicinity. In contrast, built surfaces are
composed of a high percentage of non-reflective and water-resistant
construction materials. As consequence, they tend to absorb a significant
proportion of the incident radiation, which is released as heat.
Vegetation intercepts radiation and produces shade that also contributes to
reduce urban heat release. The decrease and fragmentation of large vegetated
areas such as parks, not only reduces these benefits, but also inhibits
atmospheric cooling due to horizontal air circulation generated by the
temperature gradient between vegetated and urbanized areas (i.e. advection),
which is known as the park cool island effect. On the other hand, the narrow
arrangement of buildings along the city’s streets form urban canyons that inhibit
the escape of the reflected radiation from most of the three-dimensional urban
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surface to space. This radiation is ultimately absorbed by the building walls (i.e.
reduced sky view factor), thus enhancing the urban heat release. Additional
factors such as the scattered and emitted radiation from atmospheric pollutants
to the urban area, the production of waste heat from air conditioning and
refrigeration systems, as well from industrial processes and motorized vehicular
traffic (i.e. anthropogenic heat), and the obstruction of rural air flows by the
windward face of the built-up surfaces, have been recognized as additional
causes of the UHI effect.
There are many reasons for UHIs. When houses, shops, and industrial buildings
are constructed close together, it can create a UHI. Building materials are
usually very good at insulating, or holding in heat. This insulation makes the
areas around buildings warmer.
"Waste heat" also contributes to a UHI. People and their tools, such as cars and
factories, are always burning off energy, whether they’re jogging, driving, or
just living their day-to-day lives. The energy people burn off usually escapes in
the form of heat. And if there are a lot of people in one area, that's a lot of heat.
Urban areas are densely populated, meaning there are a lot of people in a small
space. Urban areas are also densely constructed, meaning buildings are
constructed very close together. When there is no more room for an urban
area to expand, engineers build upward, creating skyscrapers. All this
construction means waste heat—and heat that escapes insulation has nowhere to
go. It lingers in and between buildings in the UHI.
Nighttime temperatures in UHIs remain high. This is because buildings,
sidewalks, and parking lots block heat coming from the ground from rising into
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the cold night sky. Because the heat is trapped on lower levels, the temperature
is warmer.
Urban heat islands can have worse air and water quality than their rural
neighbors. UHIs often have lower air quality because there are
more pollutants (waste products from vehicles, industry, and people) being
pumped into the air. These pollutants are blocked from scattering and becoming
less toxic by the urban landscape: buildings, roads, sidewalks, and parking lots.
Water quality also suffers. When warm water from the UHI ends up flowing
into local streams, it stresses the native species that have adapted to life in a
cooler aquatic environment.
Scientists are studying how urban heat islands might contribute to global
warming, the most recent climate change pattern that includes the gradual
warming of the Earth's temperature.
When it's really hot, many of us run straight to the fan or the air conditioning.
This is especially true in urban areas that suffer from urban heat island effects.
UHIs contribute to energy demands in the summer, straining energy resources.
UHIs are often subject to “rolling blackouts,” or power outages. Utility
companies start rolling blackouts when they do not have enough energy to meet
their customers’ demands. The energy used in electric fans and air
conditioning ends up contributing to an even hotter UHI.
Because of these negative effects, scientists say city dwellers, architects, and
designers all have to work to reduce people's impact on urban areas.
Using green roofs, which are roofs of buildings covered in plants, helps cool
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things down. Plants absorb carbon dioxide, a leading pollutant. They
also reduce the heat of the surrounding areas. Using lighter-colored materials on
buildings helps, too. Light colors reflect more sunlight and trap less heat.
Main spatial and temporal characteristics
In an isothermal map the UHI is represented by closed contours on the urban
area, which contrasts with the wider contours of the rural areas. Meanwhile, in a
thermal profile the UHI is represented by the isothermic curve rise throughout
the urban area, which contrasts with the characteristic low flattened curve of the
rural areas. According to the typical thermal profile of the UHI (figure 1), the
rural thermal field is interrupted by a steep temperature gradient at the
rural/urban boundaries (i.e. cliff), and thereafter a steady but weaker horizontal
gradient of increasing temperature (i.e. plateau) is prolonged until reaching the
highest temperature point at the urban core or city centre (i.e. peak). The
uniformity of this “island” shaped pattern generally indicates a few depressions
due to the presence of particularly hot points (i.e. micro urban heat islands)
associated with features such as parking lots, malls, industrial facilities, etc, and
minor rises due to the presence of particularly cold points (i.e. heat sinks)
associated with features such as parks, fields, water bodies, etc. The difference
between the warmest urban zone and the base rural temperature defines the
intensity or magnitude of the UHI.
Impacts
It has been largely demonstrated that cities with variable landscapes and
climates can exhibit temperatures several degrees higher than their rural
surroundings (i.e. UHI effect), a phenomenon which if increases in the future,
may result in a doubling of the urban to rural thermal ratio in the following
decades. Hence, assessment of the UHI and strategies to implement its
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mitigation are becoming increasingly important for government agencies and
researchers of many affected countries.
As it would be expected, the characteristic inclination towards warming of
urban surfaces is exacerbated during hot days and heat waves, which reinforces
the air temperature increase, particularly in ill-ventilated outdoor spaces or inner
spaces of residential and commercial buildings with poor thermal isolation. This
increases the overall energy consumption for cooling (i.e. refrigeration and air-
conditioning), hence increasing the energy production by power plants, which
leads to higher emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon
dioxide, as well as other pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and
particulate matter. Furthermore, the increased energy demand means more costs
to citizens and goverments, which in large metropolitan areas may induce
significant economic impacts. On the other hand, UHIs promote high air
temperatures that contribute to formation of ozone precursors, which combined
photochemically produce ground level ozone.
A direct relationship has been found between UHI intensity peaks and heat-
related illness and fatalities, due to the incidence of thermal discomfort on the
human cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Heatstroke, heat exhaustion,
heat syncope,and heat cramps, are some of the main stress events, while a wide
number of diseases may become worse, particularly in the elderly and children.
In a similar way, respiratory and lung diseases have shown to be related to high
ozone levels induced by heat events. Several of the above mentioned impacts
have been addressed by the US EPA (for further information see links in the
“External link” section of this website).
The anomalous warm of the city creates relatively low air pressures that cause
cooler, rural air to converge on the urban center, thus forcing warm air to ascend
(i.e. convection), which at higher altitudes condensates and precipitates. Studies
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carried out in several cities of the United States such as Atlanta, New York,
Chicago and Washington, have shown that urban-induced precipitation and
thunderstorm events are mainly initiated by the UHI. Other meteorological
impacts of the UHI are associated with reductions in snowfall frecuencies and
intensities, as well as reductions in the diurnal and seasonal range of freezing
temperatures. Lastly, high temperatures may produce physiological and
phenological disturbances on ornamental plants and urban forests.
Although in wintertime the UHI can result in energy savings (i.e. winter
penalty), there is a great consent among researchers that this benefit is
outweighed by the detrimental effects that ocurr in summertime.
Mitigation strategies
In countries like the United States heat is the primary weather-related cause of
death, and therefore, promotion of strategies for mitigating the UHI are a big
concern for government agencies. There are two main UHI reduction strategies:
first, to increase surface reflectivity (i.e. high albedo), in order to reduce
radiation absorption of urban surfaces, and second, to increase vegetation cover,
mainly in the form of urban forests and parks, in order to maximize the multiple
vegetation benefits in controlling the temperature rises.
Reflective surfaces simply results from light colored or white paint on the
surface of a given construction material or from cover the construction material
surface with a white membrane. Both techniques have been mainly applied on
roofs and pavements. Cool roofs are specially important in commercial and
residential buildings, where significant energy demand for cooling can be saved
by reducing heat gain to the building. Cool pavements have mainly based on the
use of whitened asphalt roads, a very warm material. For this purpose their
surfaces have been mixed with white chip seals or coated with a light concrete
cover called whitetopping.
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To reduce the urban heat island effect:
• Build green infrastructure improvements into regular street upgrades and
capital improvement projects to ensure continued investment in heat-
reducing practices throughout your community.
• Plant trees and other vegetation—Space in urban areas might be limited,
but you can easily integrate small green infrastructure practices into
grassy or barren areas, vacant lots, and street rights-of-way.
• City officials in Louisville, Kentucky, recently awarded a $115,700
contract for a tree canopy assessment to help the city use trees to address
urban heat, stormwater management, and other concerns. "Knowing
where we lack canopy, down to the street and address level, will help our
efforts exponentially," remarked Mayor Greg Fischer.
o Make traditional water quality practices serve double duty by
adding trees in or around roadside planters and other green
infiltration-based practices to boost roadside cooling and shading.
o Transform your community one project at a time by planting
native, drought-tolerant shade trees and smaller plants such as
shrubs, grasses, and groundcover wherever possible.
• Build green roofs—Green roofs are an ideal heat island reduction
strategy, providing both direct and ambient cooling effects. In addition,
green roofs improve air quality by reducing the heat island effect and
absorbing pollutants. Many communities offer tax credits for installing
green roofs.
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