Urban Heat Island Phenomenon

Keywords: Urban Heat Island, Mitigation Strategies
Session Type: Virtual Poster Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 32

Abstract

Urban Heat Island is a phenomenon that occurs in metropolitan areas that is much warmer
comparing its temperature to surrounding areas. This phenomenon results from generation and
retention of heat by urban buildings and paved surfaces. Temperatures in heat island usually
peak after solar noon and decrease rapidly after sunset (Golden, 2014). It does not stop storage
and re-radiation of solar energy in high-density urban areas that stops cities from cooling down
at night (Link, Pillich & Klein, 2014). Other factors that make urban heat island worse are low
cloud cover, and low wind speed. Everyday activities of population requires energy that releases
emission, creates smog, and retains atmospheric heat. One of the biggest problems is that the
hotter it gets the higher demand for air conditioning and ventilation gets. Also most cities are
covered by dark surfaces like pavements and building roofs. Cities have less vegetation than
their surrounding rural areas. Mitigation strategies to combat urban heat island include: planting
more trees, creating green roofs, implementing lighter surfaces, using solar panels. In order to
see differences of mitigation strategies that are appropriate for different areas of NYC previous
research was studied. It concluded that overall combination of all strategies should be used.
Cost-benefit analysis for mitigation strategies show that cost for tree-planting is lower than cost
for development of green roofs and light surfaces. Research has shown that cost depends on a
neighborhood where a strategy is planned to be brought to life.