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The impacts of climate changes on cities, which are home to over half of the world’s population, are already being felt. In many cases, the intensive speed with which urban centres have been growing means that little attention has been paid to the role played by climatic factors in maintaining quality of life. Among the negative consequences of rapid city growth is the expansion of the problems posed by urban heat islands (UHIs), defined as areas in a city that are much warmer than other sites, especially in comparison with rural areas. This paper analyses the consistency of the UHI-related literature in three stages: first it outlines its characteristics and impacts in a wide variety of cities around the world, which poses pressures to public health in many different countries. Then it introduces strategies which may be employed in order to reduce its effects, and finally it analyses available tools to systematize the initial high level assessment of the phenomenon for multidisciplinary teams involved in the urban planning process. The analysis of literature on the characteristics, impacts, strategies and digital tools to assess on the UHI, reveals the wide variety of parameters, methods, tools and strategies analysed and suggested in the different studies, which does not always allow to compare or standardize the diagnosis or solutions.
Walter Leal Filho; Leyre Echevarria Icaza; Victoria Omeche Emanche; Abul Quasem Al-Amin. An Evidence-Based Review of Impacts, Strategies and Tools to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2017, 14, 1600 .
AMA StyleWalter Leal Filho, Leyre Echevarria Icaza, Victoria Omeche Emanche, Abul Quasem Al-Amin. An Evidence-Based Review of Impacts, Strategies and Tools to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2017; 14 (12):1600.
Chicago/Turabian StyleWalter Leal Filho; Leyre Echevarria Icaza; Victoria Omeche Emanche; Abul Quasem Al-Amin. 2017. "An Evidence-Based Review of Impacts, Strategies and Tools to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 14, no. 12: 1600.
Scientists, climatologists, and urban planners have started to recognize the importance of nature at two very different scales: the global (metabolic) and the local (liveability) scales. The regional scale is the one at which these macro and micro approaches overlap. Future predictions foresee an increase of more than 2450 million urban inhabitants by 2050, thus new balanced urban visions need to be developed in order to guarantee the sustainability of urban areas. The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect is a climate phenomenon resulting from unbalanced urban design arrangements. This paper analyses several design principles proposed by the 1920s regionalists from the UHI perspective. The preservation of the regional geographical landmarks, the implementation of urban containment policies (limiting city sizes), the increase of greenery and the development of green multifunctional blocks would help reduce the UHI in future urban developments.
Leyre Echevarría Icaza; Franklin Van Der Hoeven. Regionalist Principles to Reduce the Urban Heat Island Effect. Sustainability 2017, 9, 677 .
AMA StyleLeyre Echevarría Icaza, Franklin Van Der Hoeven. Regionalist Principles to Reduce the Urban Heat Island Effect. Sustainability. 2017; 9 (5):677.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLeyre Echevarría Icaza; Franklin Van Der Hoeven. 2017. "Regionalist Principles to Reduce the Urban Heat Island Effect." Sustainability 9, no. 5: 677.
The world is increasingly concerned with sustainability issues. Climate change is not the least of these concerns. The complexity of these issues is such that data and information management form an important means of making the right decisions. Nowadays, however, the sheer quantity of data is overwhelming; large quantities of data demand means of representation that are comprehensible and effective. The above dilemma poses questions as to how one incorporates unknown climatologic parameters, such as urban heat, in future urban planning processes, and how one ensures the proposals are specific enough to actually adapt cities to climate change and flexible enough to ensure the proposed measures are combinable and compatible with other urban planning priorities. Conventional urban planning processes and mapping strategies are not adapted to this new environmental, technological and social context. In order come up with more appropriate urban planning strategies, in its first section this paper analyzes the role of the urban planner, reviews the wide variety of parameters that are starting to be integrated into the urban planners practice, and considers the parameters (mainly land surface temperature, albedo, vegetation, and imperviousness) and tools needed for the assessment of the UHI (satellite imagery and GIS). The second part of the study analyzes the potential of four catalyzing mapping categories to integrate urban heat into spatial planning processes: drift, layering, game-board, and rhizome.
Leyre Echevarría Icaza; Andy Van Den Dobbelsteen; Frank Van Der Hoeven. Integrating Urban Heat Assessment in Urban Plans. Sustainability 2016, 8, 320 .
AMA StyleLeyre Echevarría Icaza, Andy Van Den Dobbelsteen, Frank Van Der Hoeven. Integrating Urban Heat Assessment in Urban Plans. Sustainability. 2016; 8 (4):320.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLeyre Echevarría Icaza; Andy Van Den Dobbelsteen; Frank Van Der Hoeven. 2016. "Integrating Urban Heat Assessment in Urban Plans." Sustainability 8, no. 4: 320.