Adaptation Measures For Urban Heat Islands

Adaptation Measures for Urban Heat Islands helps the reader understand the relative performance of these adaptation measures, methods and analysis relating to their creation and maintenance, evaluation methods, and the role of policy and governance in implementing them. A suite of case studies is included on these urban or metropolitan areas that are significantly warmer than their surrounding rural areas due to human activities. In recent years, a suite of adaptation measures have been developed to mitigate the urban heat island phenomena. Provides a range of concrete implementation methods Assesses relative performance of adaptation measures and countermeasure technologies Establishes methods for human thermal environmental interventions Reviews adaptation cities selected for excellent energy performance and thermal comfort indicators

Urban heat islands are a new type of microclimatic phenomenon that causes a significant increase in the temperature of cities compared to surrounding areas. The phenomenon has been enforced by the current trend towards climate change. Although experts consider urban heat islands an urgent European Union public health concern, there are too few policies that address it. The EU carried out a project to learn more about this phenomenon through pilot initiatives. The pilots included feasibility studies and strategies for appropriately altering planning rules and governance to tackle the problem of urban heat islands. The pilots were carried out in eight metropolitan areas: Bologna/Modena, Budapest, Ljubljana, Lodz, Prague, Stuttgart, Venice/Padova, and Vienna. The feasibility studies carried out in these pilot areas focused on the specific morphology of EU urban areas, which are often characterised by the presence of historical old towns.

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is an area of growing interest for many people studying the urban environment and local/global climate change. The UHI has been scientifically studied for 200 years and, although it is an apparently simple phenomenon, there is considerable confusion around the different types of UHI and their assessment. The Urban Heat Island—A Guidebook provides simple instructions for measuring and analysing the phenomenon, as well as greater context for defining the UHI and the impacts it can have. Readers will be empowered to work within a set of guidelines that enable direct comparison of UHI effects across diverse settings, while informing a wide range of climate mitigation and adaptation programs to modify human behaviour and the built form. This opens the door to true global assessments of local climate change in cities. Urban planning and design strategies can then be evaluated for their effectiveness at mitigating these changes. Covers both on-surface and near-surface, or canopy, measurements and impacts of Urban Heat Islands (UHI) Provides a set of best practices and guidelines for UHI observation and analysis Includes both conceptual overviews and practical instructions for a wide range of uses

This book presents the findings of a three-year study on urban heat in Doha, Qatar, and discusses guidelines and strategies for planning agencies to consider in the context of moderating temperatures to provide pedestrians with greater access to outdoor spaces and greater choice in modes of transport. If modifying urban form can reduce extreme temperatures in one of the hottest places on the planet, then perhaps other communities can learn how to create livable cities during a time of rapid changes to the climate. In fact, despite the periods of extreme heat, strategic planning and management of urban areas can improve residents’ and visitors’ ability to live, work, and move throughout the city comfortably. Doha, Qatar, a city with one of the most extreme climates on earth, has undergone rapid development over the past 40 years. Although cities in the Middle East are expanding at three times the international average (UN Report, 2012), the rapid population and physical growth remain largely unexamined, particularly in terms of the unique conditions, qualities, and characteristics that give rise to these emerging centres. Speed, quality, and extent of urbanization impact neighbourhood-scale environmental conditions, and this book provides evidence that urban forms and materials can help to mediate temporal variation in microclimates and that landscape modifications can potentially reduce temperatures and increase accessibility to outdoor environments. By applying the lessons in this book, communities around the world can better adapt to the increasing frequency, duration and intensity of extreme heat.

This book discusses the concepts and technologies associated with the mitigation of urban heat islands (UHIs) that are applicable in hot and humid regions. It presents several city case studies on how UHIs can be reduced in various areas to provide readers, researchers, and policymakers with insights into the concepts and technologies that should be considered when planning and constructing urban centres and buildings. The rapid development of urban areas in hot and humid regions has led to an increase in urban temperatures, a decrease in ventilation in buildings, and a transformation of the once green outdoor environment into areas full of solar-energy-absorbing concrete and asphalt. This situation has increased the discomfort of people living in these areas regardless of whether they occupy concrete structures. This is because indoor and outdoor air quality have both suffered from urbanisation. The development of urban areas has also increased energy consumption so that the occupants of buildings can enjoy indoor thermal comfort and air quality that they need via air conditioning systems. This book offers solutions to the recent increase in the number of heat islands in hot and humid regions.​

There is pressing evidence of phenomena, linked to meteorology and climate, which are modifying their temporal occurrence and which have a very evident impact on the safety and health of populations residing in cities. The urban problem at the beginning of the second set of twenty years of the new century requires a complete rethinking of the way of aggregation of man who, today, represents a large part of the world population due to increasingly accelerated urbanization processes over time. The human being has become a citizen, and within the city limits, he tries to develop his life expectancy by seizing opportunities from this. This search for well-being, understood as a complete state of man, at once physiological and psychological and social, can be thwarted by an urban structure that is not functionally capable of providing answers. The climate problem exacerbates this problem by strongly stressing the contradictions of living. Science, technology, and politics are today able to give answers if applied wisely in a joint effort, in a unit of language. This book proposes several solutions that can be implemented today, ranging from a full understanding of phenomena to adaptation policies for solving problems. The most pressing invitation is addressed precisely to politics to make cities more resilient and safe.

Livable Cities: Urban Heat Islands Mitigation for Climate Change Adaptation Through Urban Greening elucidates on livability in urban areas, providing readers with definitions and indicators of what makes a city livable. It comprehensively introduces the urban heat island effect (UHIE) and offers strategies for mitigating high surface temperatures in metropolitan areas and adapting to climate change (CC). The coverage highlights the linkage between UHIE and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the socio-economic impacts of urban heat islands (UHIs), their effect on livability for citizens, and the costs and benefits of mitigating UHI. In addition, it encompasses background information about the problems and challenges that megacities face in the 21st century, followed by the cooling benefits that can be achieved from the different types of urban green coverage (UGC), whether conventional or innovative. The book presents case studies on six cities that have successfully applied UGC: Chicago (United States), Curitiba (Brazil), Stuttgart (Germany), Tokyo (Asia), Melbourne (Australia), and Johannesburg (South Africa). Additional case studies illustrate UHIE mapping in greater Cario, Egypt, and Rome, Italy, to determine hot spot areas that need interventions and prioritization of UGC. Highlights also include the role of blue and green infrastructures in creating livable cities in the post-COVID-19 world, trends of bi-correlation between urban green spaces (UGSs), UGC, and COVID-19, and global patterns of UGSs to shape better healthy, sustainable, and resilient cities. Explores urban heat islands, their causes, and strategies for climate change adaptation to create livable cities; Highlights the role of urban green coverage in post-COVID-19 regulations in shaping more livable, sustainable, and resilient cities. Explores ways to reduce the urban heat island effect by exploiting urban greening to mitigate high temperatures in large cities like Cairo and Rome.

This book analyzes how climate change adaptation can be implemented at the community, regional and national level. Featuring a variety of case studies, it illustrates strategies, initiatives and projects currently being implemented across the world. In addition to the challenges faced by communities, cities and regions seeking to cope with climate change phenomena like floods, droughts and other extreme events, the respective chapters cover topics such as the adaptive capacities of water management organizations, biodiversity conservation, and indigenous and climate change adaptation strategies. The book will appeal to a broad readership, from scholars to policymakers, interested in developing strategies for effectively addressing the impacts of climate change.