On the influence of density and morphology on the Urban Heat Island intensity

The canopy layer urban heat island (UHI) effect, as manifested by elevated near-surface air temperatures in urban areas, exposes urban dwellers to additional heat stress in many cities, specially during heat waves. We simulate the urban climate of various generated cities under the same weather cond...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Nature communications 2020-05, Vol.11 (1), p.2647-2647, Article 2647
Main Authors:	Li, Yunfei, Schubert, Sebastian, Kropp, Jürgen P, Rybski, Diego
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Air temperature Cities Density Heat Heat stress Heat waves Morphology Urban areas Urban development Urban heat islands Urban structures Weather
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	The canopy layer urban heat island (UHI) effect, as manifested by elevated near-surface air temperatures in urban areas, exposes urban dwellers to additional heat stress in many cities, specially during heat waves. We simulate the urban climate of various generated cities under the same weather conditions. For mono-centric cities, we propose a linear combination of logarithmic city area and logarithmic gross building volume, which also captures the influence of building density. By studying various city shapes, we generalise and propose a reduced form to estimate UHI intensities based only on the structure of urban sites, as well as their relative distances. We conclude that in addition to the size, the UHI intensity of a city is directly related to the density and an amplifying effect that urban sites have on each other. Our approach can serve as a UHI rule of thumb for the comparison of urban development scenarios.
ISSN:	2041-1723 2041-1723