Quantifying Effects of Urban Heat Islands: State of the Art

Recently, the world has been suffering from the distressing effects of one form of climate change, urban heat island (UHI). It means that urban and suburban areas’ air and surface temperatures are hotter than their nearby surrounding rural areas. Pavements and parking lots contributes to about 29% to 45% of the urban areas, and they contribute to the UHI phenomena. During the day, temperature of dark dry surfaces (such as pavements and parking lots) in direct sun can reach up to 88 °C while vegetated surfaces with moist soils might reach only 18 °C under the same conditions. The increase in temperature due to UHI leads to an increase in the peak energy demand using more air conditioners and raising the energy bills. It also leads to an increase in the levels of greenhouse gas emissions (global warming) and air pollution. Increased daytime temperatures, reduced nighttime cooling, and higher air pollution levels related to UHIs affects human health as they lead to general discomfort, respiratory difficulties, heat cramps, and exhaustion. UHI has great and direct effects on the environment, on people and on the human health, on energy consumption and on the economy, and on the pavement performance. The factors that affect the formation and intensity of UHI are versatile in nature. These factors vary between geographic location, time of day and season, synoptic weather, city size, city function and city form. The last two factors are the factors which can be controlled in order to mitigate UHI. Recent studies showed more interest in analyzing and quantifying the UHI phenomenon with more focus on the mitigation techniques. It is abundantly clear that there must be strategies to measure, model and control the phenomenon and achieve one of the Sustainable Development Goals, namely; sustainable cities and communities. The primary focus of this concise, yet comprehensive state of the art paper is to present the different technologies to mitigate the urban heat island. This study presented the different UHI definitions, causes, evaluation methods, and finally compared between the different mitigation techniques and set recommendations and guidelines based on a comprehensive literature review.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34196-1
• Record URL:
  • https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-34196-1_4
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9783030341954
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.
• Corporate Authors:

  Springer International Publishing

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Abd El-Hakim, Ragaa
  • El-Badawy, Sherif
• Conference:
  • 3rd GeoMEast International Congress and Exhibition on Sustainable Civil Infrastructures
  • Location: Cairo , Egypt
  • Date: 2019-11-10 to 2019-11-14
• Publication Date: 2019-11

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 42-69
• Monograph Title: Recent Developments in Pavement Engineering: Proceedings of the 3rd GeoMEast International Congress and Exhibition, Egypt 2019 on Sustainable Civil Infrastructures – The Official International Congress of the Soil-Structure Interaction Group in Egypt (SSIGE)
• Serial:
  • Sustainable Civil Infrastructures
  • Publisher: Springer Cham
  • ISSN: 2366-3405
  • Serial URL: https://www.springer.com/series/15140

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Environmental impacts; Heat islands; Literature reviews; Parking lots; Pavements; Public health
• Subject Areas: Environment; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01903183
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9783030341954
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 22 2023 11:29AM