URBAN HEAT ISLAND AND CITIES DESIGN: A Conceptual Framework of Mitigation Tools in Hot‐arid Regions | ||
| Journal of Urban Research | ||
| Article 7, Volume 8, Issue 1, July 2011, Pages 123-144 PDF (2.9 M) | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/jur.2011.94276 | ||
| Author | ||
| Aboulfetouh Saad Shalaby | ||
| Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning, Cairo University, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Urban heat island (UHI) is a climatological phenomenon which represents the difference in air temperature between urban areas, and its surrounding suburbs and undeveloped areas. UHI is considered as one of the major problems in the 21st century posed to human beings as a result of high rates of urbanization. The large amount of heat generated from urban structures, as they absorb and re‐radiate solar radiation, and from anthropogenic heat sources are main causes of UHI. In the ever‐urbanizing Arab region, the intensifying UHI contributes to the increase of thermal discomfort of urban dwellers and, hence, the increase of their environmentally unsustainable practices. There is an utmost need, therefore, to study this phenomenon and investigate possible mitigation tools. This paper summarizes the significance of UHI, its major characteristics and its causes. More importantly, it attempts to form a conceptual framework of countermeasures, and urban design and planning parameters which help mitigate this phenomenon. In doing so, this theoretical study capitalizes on immense literature which has addressed the issue, yet, basically from a climatological point of view. It attempts to look at the subject from an urban design and planning point of view. The study, therefore, brings together two disciplines, climatology and cities design and planning, an attempt in the field of UHI that has been rarely tackled on the Arab region. The resulting collective conceptual framework is seen in this paper as a necessary first step towards deeper investigation into urban planning and design parameters which could help reduce the impact of UHI and, hence, create better quality of life in the Arab world. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Urban heat island; sustainable urban practices; urbanization | ||
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