Urban Climate Mitigation Techniques

The urban climate is continuously deteriorating. Urban heat lowers the quality of urban life, increases energy needs, and affects the urban socio-economy. Urban Climate Mitigation Techniques presents steps that can be taken to mitigate this situation through a series of innovative technologies and examples of best practices for the improvement of the urban climate. Including tools for evaluation and a comparative analysis, this book addresses anthropogenic heat, green areas, cool materials and pavements, outdoor shading structures, evaporative cooling and earth cooling. Case studies demonstrate the success and applicability of these measures in various cities throughout the world. Useful for urban designers, architects and planners, Urban Climate Mitigation Techniques is a step by step tour of the innovative technologies improving our urban climate, providing a holistic approach supported by well-established quantitative examples.

Climate Change and Cities bridges science-to-action for climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts in cities around the world.

This book describes the risks, impacts, measures, actions and adaptation policies that have developed globally as a result of the severe impacts of global climate change. In-depth chapters focus on climate change assessment (CCA) in terms of vulnerabilities and reflection on the built environment and measures and actions for infrastructure and urban areas. Adaptation actions specific to developing countries such as Egypt are presented and illustrated. Global Climate change adaptation projects (CCAPs) in developing countries, in terms of their targets and performance, are presented and compared with those existing CCAPs in Egypt to draw learned lessons. Climate change scenarios 2080 using simulations are portrayed and discussed with emphasis on a case-study model from existing social housing projects in hot-arid urban areas in Cairo; in an effort to put forward an assessment and evaluation of current CCA techniques. This book helps researchers realize the global impacts of climate change on the built environment and economic sectors, and enhances their understanding of current climate change measures, actions, policies, projects and scenarios. Reviews and illustrates the impact of global climate change risks; Provides an understanding of global climate change risks in seven continents; Illustrates policies and action plans implemented at the global level and developing countries' level; Discusses climate change assessment and vulnerabilities with emphasis on urban areas; Presents measures and action plans to mitigate climate change scenarios by 2080.

This resource provides authoritative guidance for spatial planners on how to meet the economic, social and environmental challenges that climate change raises for urban and regional development. It brings together some of the recent research and scholarly works on the role of spatial planning in combating climate change.

"Reviews the relationship between urban planning and GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions as a key component of climate change, provides characteristics of GHG decision support tools, and evaluates the strengths and limitations of a cross section of existing tools using those characteristics." - page ii.

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.

This book provides an overview of the large and interdisciplinary literature on the substance and process of urban climate change planning and design, using the most important articles from the last 15 years to engage readers in understanding problems and finding solutions to this increasingly critical issue. The Reader’s particular focus is how the impacts of climate change can be addressed in urban and suburban environments—what actions can be taken, as well as the need for and the process of climate planning. Both reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as adapting to future climate are explored. Many of the emerging best practices in this field involve improving the green infrastructure of the city and region—providing better on-site stormwater management, more urban greening to address excess heat, zoning for regional patterns of open space and public transportation corridors, and similar actions. These actions may also improve current public health and livability in cities, bringing benefits now and into the future. This Reader is innovative in bringing climate adaptation and green infrastructure together, encouraging a more hopeful perspective on the great challenge of climate change by exploring both the problems of climate change and local solutions.

Climate change is changing the context of spatial planning and shaping its priorities. It has strengthened its environmental dimension and has become a new rationale for coordinating actions and integrating different policy priorities. This book sets out the economic, social and environmental challenges that climate change raises for urban and regional planners and explores current and potential responses. These are set within the context of recent research and scholarly works on the role of spatial planning in combating climate change. Addressing both mitigation measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to the effects of climate change, the book provides an overview of emerging practice, with analysis of the drivers of policy change and practical implementation of measures. It scopes planning issues and opportunities at different spatial scales, drawing on both the UK and international experiences and highlighting the need to link global and local responses to shared risks and opportunities.