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Research papers on Urban heat islands

Recent and highly-cited academic work on urban heat islands, gathered from Semantic Scholar, CrossRef and OpenAlex.

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  2. Surface Urban Heat Island Across 419 Global Big Cities

    Shushi Peng, Shilong Piao, Philippe Ciais, et al. · 2011 · Environmental Science & Technology · 1,396 citations

    Urban heat island is among the most evident aspects of human impacts on the earth system. Here we assess the diurnal and seasonal variation of surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) defined as the surface temperature difference between urban area and suburban area measured from the MODIS. Differences in SUHII are analyzed across 419 global big cities, and we assess several potential biophysical and socio-economic driving factors. Across the big cities, we show that the average annual daytime SUHII (1.5 ± 1.2 °C) is higher than the annual nighttime SUHII (1.1 ± 0.5 °C) (P < 0.001). But no correlation is found between daytime and nighttime SUHII across big cities (P = 0.84), suggesting di

  3. Utilising green and bluespace to mitigate urban heat island intensity

    Kanchane Gunawardena, M.J. Wells, Tristan Kershaw · 2017 · The Science of The Total Environment · 1,375 citations

    It has long been recognised that cities exhibit their own microclimate and are typically warmer than the surrounding rural areas. This 'mesoscale' influence is known as the urban heat island (UHI) effect and results largely from modification of surface properties leading to greater absorption of solar radiation, reduced convective cooling and lower water evaporation rates. Cities typically contain less vegetation and bodies of water than rural areas, and existing green and bluespace is often under threat from increasing population densities. This paper presents a meta-analysis of the key ways in which green and bluespace affect both urban canopy- and boundary-layer temperatures, examined fro

  8. Synergistic Interactions between Urban Heat Islands and Heat Waves: The Impact in Cities Is Larger than the Sum of Its Parts

    Dan Li, Elie Bou‐Zeid · 2013 · Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology · 887 citations

    Abstract Cities are well known to be hotter than the rural areas that surround them; this phenomenon is called the urban heat island. Heat waves are excessively hot periods during which the air temperatures of both urban and rural areas increase significantly. However, whether urban and rural temperatures respond in the same way to heat waves remains a critical unanswered question. In this study, a combination of observational and modeling analyses indicates synergies between urban heat islands and heat waves. That is, not only do heat waves increase the ambient temperatures, but they also intensify the difference between urban and rural temperatures. As a result, the added heat stress in ci

  12. How to effectively mitigate urban heat island effect? A perspective of waterbody patch size threshold

    Jian Peng, Qianyuan Liu, Zihan Xu, et al. · 2020 · Landscape and Urban Planning · 220 citations

    Abstract Climatic warming and urbanization have exacerbated urban heat island (UHI) effect globally. Waterbodies have significant cooling effect while the current UHI mitigation researches mostly focus on green spaces. Although the cooling effect of waterbodies has been highlighted and measured in previous studies, the impact of local socioeconomic development surrounding the waterbodies remains unclear. The scarcity of land resource in the city has also posed urgent need to explore cooling efficiency of waterbody patch size. Highly urbanized and densely scattered with waterbody, the Pearl River Delta (PRD) urban agglomeration has suffered severe UHI effect. Taking four PRD cities as the cas

  13. Cities, Climate Change and Urban Heat Island Mitigation: Localising Global Environmental Science

    Jason Corburn · 2009 · Urban Studies · 200 citations

    This paper explores how city planners engaged with global climate scientists to devise contextually relevant strategies to address the urban heat island effect—a potentially dangerous heat event expected to increase along with global warming. Drawing original data from the New York City Regional Heat Island Initiative, a collaborative effort between scientists and urban planners, the paper highlights how global climate science is `localised' as researchers and policy-makers struggle to make technically legitimate and politically accountable decisions. The paper argues that the localisation of global science often involves a process of co-production, where technical issues are not divorced fr

  15. Balancing conflicting mitigation and adaptation behaviours of urban residents under climate change and the urban heat island effect

    Kayoko Kondo, L. Mabon, Yifan Bi, et al. · 2020 · Sustainable Cities and Society · 92 citations

    Highlights • Cooling behaviours an area of increasing interest under rising heat in cities.• Survey of public in Fukuoka, Japan, assesses cooling behaviour and climate awareness.• Some people use air conditioning with mitigation focus, others emphasise adaptation.• Those emphasising mitigation have lower bills and more likely to engage in other behaviours.• Messaging on air conditioning use and promoting urban greening may enable co-benefits.

  17. Assessing the Cooling Effect of Blue-Green Spaces: Implications for Urban Heat Island Mitigation

    Pritipadmaja, R. Garg, Ashok K. Sharma · 2023 · Water · 68 citations

    The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect is a significant concern in today’s rapidly urbanising cities, with exacerbating heatwaves’ impact, urban livelihood, and environmental well-being. This study aims to assess the cooling effect of blue-green spaces in Bhubaneswar, India, and explore their implications for mitigating UHI effects. Satellite images were processed with Google Earth Engine (GEE) to produce information on the blue-green spaces’ land surface temperatures (LST). The Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Modified Normalised Difference Water Index (MNDWI) were employed to quantify the presence and characteristics of these blue-green spaces. The findings revealed significan

  19. Urban heat island effect in India: a review of current status, impact and mitigation strategies

    Sahidul Islam, A. Karipot, R. Bhawar, et al. · 2024 · Discover Cities · 60 citations

    The Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon significantly affects us by exacerbating heat discomfort, increased energy consumption, and urban air pollution. The severity of UHI associated with heat waves and heat stress-related mortality is now one of the major concerns, particularly in densely populated cities. Therefore, the significance of the UHI has emerged as a crucial issue due to cities’ fast growth and urban development, necessitating a comprehensive review of the present status of UHI research, particularly concerning regional comparisons. This paper delineates the characteristics of UHI, focusing on its intensity, impact, determining factors, and potential mitigation strategy. It synth

  21. Modeling the urban heat island mitigation effect of cool coatings in realistic urban morphology

    Nairui Liu, L. Morawska · 2020 · Journal of Cleaner Production · 50 citations

    There are currently more than 400 cities that are subject to the urban heat island (UHI) effect, whose summer temperature can be over 15 °C above the human thermal comfort zone. As the scope of urbanization expands, more people will feel the influence of the UHI effect. Since cool coatings can serve as a mitigation measure against the UHI effect, this research proposes a method that can estimate its mitigation effect in any given region. The main idea of this method is to simulate the function of cool coatings via increasing the albedo values in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The main novelty of this method is that it incorporates detailed land categorization data to simul

  23. The effect of Urban Heat Island mitigation strategies on outdoor human thermal comfort in the city of Baghdad

    A. M. Salman, Y. M. Saleem · 2021 · Frontiers of Architectural Research · 38 citations

    Abstract Todays, most Iraqi cities suffer from extremely hot-dry climate for long periods throughout the year. However, most urban patterns that exist inside these cities are not suitable for this harsh conditions and lead to an increase in the value of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) index. Consequently, this will increase outdoor human thermal discomfort as well as energy consumption and air pollution in cities. This study attempts to evaluate the effect of UHI mitigation strategies on outdoor human thermal comfort in three different common types of urban patterns in the biggest and most populated city in Iraq, Baghdad. Three different mitigation strategies are used here – vegetation, cool mat

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