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Urban Heat Island and Mitigation Technologies—Impact and Mitigation

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A special issue of Urban Science (ISSN 2413-8851).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2018) | Viewed by 37456

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Junjing Yang

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Guest Editor

Department of Building, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Interests: building energy efficiency; smart building; smart city; district energy efficiency

Prof. Dr. Mattheos Santamouris

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Guest Editor

Group of Building Environmental Research, Department of Physics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimioupolis, 15784 Athens, Greece
Interests: heat island; urban mitigation; advanced materials; low energy buildings and settlements
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect and publish the results of recent advanced scientific research and a systematic literature review in the following, but not exhaustive, list of areas:

Studies on the chacracteristics and the magnitude of UHI (Urban Heat Island);
Microclimate characteristics at the urban scale due to the urban heat island and urban overheating;
Mitigation technologies and applications studies;
Impact of UHI on energy, comfort, health, environment, and economy;
Performance evaluation demonstrations and active intervention at the urban level;
Big data solutions for remote monitoring, data analyses, and control/optimization for urban heat island study;
Case studies in cities and best practices on mitigation solutions;
Remote sensing studies

Objectives:

The heat island is a more documented phenomenon of climatic change. It deals with increased urban temperatures compared to those of surrounding rural or suburban areas. Heat islands in low- and mid-latitude areas increase the cooling load of buildings, thermal discomfort, pollution levels, and heat-related illnesses. The World Health Organization estimates that temperature increase and precipitation trends have already claimed over 150,000 lives annually.

Urban areas, are estimated to include almost 54% of the world’s total population, are drawing a great deal of interest on the study on the urban heat island phenomenon in these cities, and, accordingly, mitigation technologies. The objective of this Special Issue is to look at the urban heat island phenomenon and mitigation solutions in cities.

Expected final outcomes and contributions to science:

We encourage authors to not only focus on mitigation, but also on urban climatology, health, etc. Market application of innovations, in both technological and application methodologies, will be vital in understanding and mitigating the urban heat island. Although investment and research have been made and developed, respectively, it is insubstantial compared to what is actually required, especially in Asian and Australian cities. This Special Issue aims at the outcomes of present and recent research and developments, in both academia and industry, pertaining to the points discussed. These range from those in the methodology stage, to those in the concept phase, as well as those currently being released into the market for urban heat island mitigation.

Dr. Junjing Yang
Prof. Dr. Matheos Santamouris
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Urban Science is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

urban heat island
asia cities
mitigation
impact

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

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6 pages, 182 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Urban Heat Island and Mitigation Technologies in Asian and Australian Cities—Impact and Mitigation

by Junjing Yang and Mat Santamouris

Urban Sci. 2018, 2(3), 74; https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci2030074 - 23 Aug 2018

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 5184

Abstract

n/a Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Heat Island and Mitigation Technologies—Impact and Mitigation)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

16 pages, 4662 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Maintaining Comfortable Summertime Indoor Temperatures by Means of Passive Design Measures to Mitigate the Urban Heat Island Effect—A Sensitivity Analysis for Residential Buildings in the City of Vienna

by Doris Österreicher and Stefan Sattler

Urban Sci. 2018, 2(3), 66; https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci2030066 - 08 Aug 2018

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4308

Abstract

The waste heat generated from the use of air conditioning systems in cities significantly contributes to the urban heat island effect (UHI) during the summer months. Thus, one of the key measures to mitigate this effect is to limit the use of active cooling systems. In the city of Vienna, air conditioning units are common in nonresidential buildings, but have so far been much less installed in residential buildings. This is mainly due to the fact that the Viennese summertime climate is still considered to be relatively comfortable and planning guidelines related to energy efficiency are already strict, resulting in high-quality buildings in regard to thermal performance. However, during the last decade, an increase in summertime temperatures and so called “tropical nights” has been recorded in Vienna and subsequently the postconstruction installation of air conditioning systems in residential buildings has significantly increased. In a study undertaken for the City of Vienna, a series of passive design measures have been simulated with current and future climate scenarios in order to determine the most effective combination of architecturally driven actions to avoid the use of air conditioning systems in residential buildings whilst maintaining comfortable indoor temperatures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Heat Island and Mitigation Technologies—Impact and Mitigation)

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14 pages, 2319 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Highly Reflective Materials on Meteorology, PM10 and Ozone in Urban Areas: A Modeling Study with WRF-CHIMERE at High Resolution over Milan (Italy)

by Serena Falasca and Gabriele Curci

Urban Sci. 2018, 2(1), 18; https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci2010018 - 23 Feb 2018

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4309

Abstract

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is a well-known phenomenon concerning an increasing percentage of the world’s population due to the growth rates of metropolitan areas. Given the health and economic implications of UHIs, several mitigation techniques are being evaluated and tested. In this study, we consider the use of highly reflective materials for urban surfaces, and we carried out numerical experiments using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with the CHIMERE model in order to investigate the effects of these materials on the meteorology and air quality in the urban area of Milan (Italy). Results show that an increase in albedo from 0.2 to 0.7 for urban roofs, walls and streets leads to a decrease in UHI intensity by up to 2–3 °C and of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) height of about 500 m. However, the difference of PM10 and ozone between urban and surrounding areas increases by a factor of about 2, attributable to the reduction of PBL height and wind speed and to the increased reflected solar radiation that may enhance photochemical production during the daytime. Therefore, if anthropogenic emissions are held at the same levels, the potential benefit to the UHI in terms of thermal discomfort may have negative repercussions on air quality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Heat Island and Mitigation Technologies—Impact and Mitigation)

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16 pages, 6417 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Quantifying the Trends in Land Surface Temperature and Surface Urban Heat Island Intensity in Mediterranean Cities in View of Smart Urbanization

by Anastasios Polydoros, Thaleia Mavrakou and Constantinos Cartalis

Urban Sci. 2018, 2(1), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci2010016 - 17 Feb 2018

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 6980

Abstract

Land Surface Temperature (LST) is a key parameter for the estimation of urban fluxes as well as for the assessment of the presence and strength of the surface urban heat island (SUHI). In an urban environment, LST depends on the way the city has been planned and developed over time. To this end, the estimation of LST needs adequate spatial and temporal data at the urban scale, especially with respect to land cover/land use. The present study is divided in two parts: at first, satellite data from MODIS-Terra 8-day product (MOD11A2) were used for the analysis of an eighteen-year time series (2001–2017) of the LST spatial and temporal distribution in five major cities of the Mediterranean during the summer months. LST trends were retrieved and assessed for their statistical significance. Secondly, LST values and trends for each city were examined in relation to land cover characteristics and patterns in order to define the contribution of urban development and planning on LST; this information is important for the drafting of smart urbanization policies and measures. Results revealed (a) positive LST trends in the urban areas especially during nighttime ranging from +0.412 °K in Marseille to +0.923 °K in Cairo and (b) the SUHI has intensified during the last eighteen years especially during daytime in European Mediterranean cities, such as Rome (+0.332 °K) and Barcelona (+0.307 °K). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Heat Island and Mitigation Technologies—Impact and Mitigation)

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2988 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Urbanisation-Induced Land Cover Temperature Dynamics for Sustainable Future Urban Heat Island Mitigation

by Andrew MacLachlan, Eloise Biggs, Gareth Roberts and Bryan Boruff

Urban Sci. 2017, 1(4), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci1040038 - 02 Dec 2017

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 7550

Abstract

Urban land cover is one of the fastest global growing land cover types which permanently alters land surface properties and atmospheric interactions, often initiating an urban heat island effect. Urbanisation comprises a number of land cover changes within metropolitan regions. However, these complexities have been somewhat neglected in temperature analysis studies of the urban heat island effect, whereby over-simplification ignores the heterogeneity of urban surfaces and associated land surface temperature dynamics. Accurate spatial information pertaining to these land cover change—temperature relationships across space is essential for policy integration regarding future sustainable city planning to mitigate urban heat impacts. Through a multi-sensor approach, this research disentangles the complex spatial heterogeneous variations between changes in land cover (Landsat data) and land surface temperature (MODIS data), to understand the urban heat island effect dynamics in greater detail for appropriate policy integration. The application area is the rapidly expanding Perth Metropolitan Region (PMR) in Western Australia (WA). Results indicate that land cover change from forest to urban is associated with the greatest annual daytime and nighttime temperature change of 0.40 °C and 0.88 °C respectively. Conversely, change from grassland to urban minimises temperature change at 0.16 °C and 0.77 °C for annual daytime and nighttime temperature respectively. These findings are important to consider for proposed developments of the city as such detail is not currently considered in the urban growth plans for the PMR. The novel intra-urban research approach presented can be applied to other global metropolitan regions to facilitate future transition towards sustainable cities, whereby urban heat impacts can be better managed through optimised land use planning, moving cities towards alignment with the 2030 sustainable development goals and the City Resilience Framework (CRF). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Heat Island and Mitigation Technologies—Impact and Mitigation)

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7548 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Path to an Integrated Modelling between IFC and CityGML for Neighborhood Scale Modelling

by Steve Kardinal Jusuf, Benjamin Mousseau, Gaelle Godfroid and Jin Hui Vincent Soh

Urban Sci. 2017, 1(3), 25; https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci1030025 - 11 Aug 2017

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 8010

Abstract

Planning of the built environment requires two-levels of planning process, city/neighborhood-scale and building-scale levels. At the city/neighborhood-scale, Geographic Information System (GIS) is commonly used with CityGML as its open-source 3D format. Meanwhile, for building-scale, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is used, and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format is its open-source file format. Both technologies work on different data formats and data exchanges. The research is focusing on ways of exchanging information and bringing together CityGML and IFC. With local context input, the methodology could be considered as a framework to parametrically manage the information related to energy, environment, security, etc. In this project, two use cases were developed, such as visualization for a web application. Autodesk Revit and Graphisoft Archicad were used in developing the building models as a prototype for the transformation testing. The transformation system was developed using Feature Manipulation Engine (FME), by Safe Software. FME allowed us to restructure the data model (IFC) and transformed it to the destination data format (CityGML). The test results showed that from detailed BIM models, CityGML format, as well as a Sketchup file, could be generated. These models can be imported to web visualization applications for urban energy modelling. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Heat Island and Mitigation Technologies—Impact and Mitigation)

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