SHADAB SAIFI

ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING S.P.A. DELHI

• DEFINITION
• The term "heat island" describes built up areas that are hotter than nearby rural
areas. The annual mean air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can
be 1.8–5.4°F (1–3°C) warmer than its surroundings. In the evening, the difference can
be as high as 22°F (12°C). Heat islands can affect communities by increasing
summertime peak energy demand, air conditioning costs, air pollution and
greenhouse gas emissions, heat-related illness and mortality, and water quality.
• Source; United States Environmental Protection Agency

• MAJOR CAUSES
Regional climate describes the general climatic conditions of the locality.
A microclimate is the climate of a small area that is different from the area around it
humans are changing climatic systems by
1.changing land cover
2.releasing pollutants
3.releasing greenhouse gases
rapid urbanization and industrialization have
brought about microclimatic change(thermal
structure)
 • DIURNAL BEHAVIOUR OF URBAN HEAT ISLAND EFFECT
Day Temperatures
 Day surface
temperatures
vary widely by
surface type.
 Day air
temperatures
vary much less.

Night
Temperatures
 Night surface
temperatures
are hotter over
urban surfaces.
 Night air
temperatures
follow the same
pattern as
surface
temperatures.

Source: Urban Heat Island Basics, 2008, Reducing Urban Heat Islands:
Compendium of Strategies, U.S. EPA,
 • TYPES OF URBAN HEAT ISLAND
 Surface heat islands
 Higher surface temperatures in urban areas compared with
rural areas, illustrated with thermal images
 Atmospheric heat islands Surface UHI
 Warmer air in urban areas compared with rural areas,
illustrated with isotherm maps or graphs
Canopy layer heat islands are present in the air layer where we
live – from ground level to the tops of trees or buildings
Boundary layer heat islands are in the area above rooftops and
trees extending upwards as much as one mile.
Feature Surface UHI Atmospheric UHI
Timing • Present all times day or night • Small or absent during day
• Most intense during daytime and • Most intense at night or just Atmospheric UHI
summers before dawn and in winter
Peak Intensity More spatial and temporal variation Less variation
• Day: 18 to 27ºF • Day: -1.8 to 5.4ºF
• Night: 9 to 18ºF • Night: 12.6 to 21.6ºF

Typical Method for Indirect measurements using remote Direct measurements with weather
Identification sensing stations or mobile measurements

Typical Illustration Thermal image Isotherm maps & temperature

graphs
Source; United States Environmental Protection Agency
• CAUSES
• PROPERTIES OF MATERIAL-Concrete ,asphalt absorb sw radiations and
release during night
• LACK OF VEGETATION
• URBAN CANYON EFFECT-A street canyon (also known as an urban canyon) is
a place where the street is flanked by buildings on both sides creating a
canyon-like environment. Classic examples of these human-built canyons
are made when streets separate dense blocks of structures, especially
skyscrapers.
• WASTE HEAT-Waste heat is heat that is produced by a machine, or other
process that uses energy, as a byproduct of doing work.
• ALBEDO-Albedo (meaning "whiteness") is the measure of the diffuse
reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation received by an
astronomical body
• THERMAL PLUME-An urban thermal plume describes rising air in the lower
altitudes of the Earth's atmosphere caused by urban areas being warmer
than surrounding areas.
Canyon Effect Albedo

Thermal Plume Land Cover change-Delhi


Increased incoming long-wave radiation due to added absorption
by pollutants
Decrease in sky view factor by buildings leading to a decrease in
outgoing long-wave radiation
Increased short-wave radiation absorption (e.g., brick, asphalt, tar)
Anthropogenic heating Decreased evaporation owing to a lack of
vegetation when compared to rural areas
urban areas have much greater roughness lengths than rural
areas. With greater roughness lengths, winds near the surface
slow down over urban areas due to increased effects of
friction, causing local convergence to form on the upwind
side of the urban area, and sometimes even divergence to
form on the downwind side.
most precipitation that falls on urban areas becomes runoff
and enters the sewer system beneath the ground.
These factors decrease surface moisture availability through
evaporation and evapotranspiration,
Source; United States Environmental Protection Agency
 • IMPACTS
Increasing peak energy demand
Air conditioning costs
Air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Water quality and air quality.
Heat-related illness and mortality.
UHI can increase duration of heat waves.
heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps, depression, dementia,
Parkinson’s disease.
urban heat islands raise demand for electrical energy in summer.
Companies that supply electricity typically rely on fossil fuel power plants to
meet much of this demand, which in turn leads to an increase in air pollutant
and greenhouse gas emissions.
High pavement and rooftop surface temperatures can heat stormwater
runoff. Tests have shown that pavements that are 100ºF (38°C) can elevate
initial rainwater temperature from roughly 70ºF (21ºC) to over 95ºF (35ºC).

Source; United States Environmental Protection Agency

 • Summary of UHI studies in Asian cities
Studied City Method Difference in temperature found Observations/ UHI Influencing
in the city factors
New Delhi Thermal mapping of surface 7˚C in the night time Aerosol depth/ distribution,
temperatures using MODIS data for 3 Presence of water bodies and
years rivers
Chennai Mobile survey- air temperatures 2.48 ˚C in summer and 3.35 ˚C in Density of builtup areas, presence
winter of water bodies, thermal properties
of materials and anthropogenic
heat

Bangalore LST maps using satellite data for a 2.5 ˚C Parks, lakes, vegetation
few decades
Pune Mobile measurements (DBT and WBT) 2˚C Heat island accompanied by
moisture island, Topography,
Katabatic winds

Colombo LANDSAT satellite data for surface Max 18˚C* Population, floor area density,
temperatures forest cover
Cochin Filed measurements- Air temperatures Average 2.4K during Winter High water cover
Hong Kong Fixed station 1.5⁰C (during night) Surface albedo, Sky view factor
Kaulalampu Fixed station 6.5⁰C Building mass, green spaces
r
Singapore Fixed stations 3⁰C Building mass, green spaces
Tokyo Mobile measurements 8.1⁰C (during night) Wind movement
Seoul Surface temperatures (fixed station) Max 7⁰C Stronger on week days than week
ends

Source; TERI- Sustainable Habitat Division

 • Case Study-Bangalore
• One of the fastest growing metropolitan cities in India-
About 60% population growth during last two decades
• 632% growth in urban builtup areas over last four
decades
• Shift in peoples life style and rapid growth in vehicle
usage led to increase in energy demand
• 30% of cities energy consumption is shared by the
commercial building sector includes corporate offices,
IT parks, multiplexes and shopping malls
• Known as “ Garden City” for its gardens, parks and Landuse Map- Bangalore
lakes
• Plateau with red fine loamy and clayey soils
• Land use
• 60% buildings
• 14% Parks & Open Spaces
• 21% transportation
• 5% unclassified
• Temperate climate with 38⁰C yearly Max & 12⁰C yearly
min
• Maximum global radiation exceeds 1000 W/Sqm

Source; TERI- Sustainable Habitat Division

 • Case Study-Bangalore
SITE SELECTION FIXING INSTRUMENTS

Site3: IISc Thermo-hygro

data logger
Site1: Com St
Site5: Ulsoor
Site 4:Palace Rd Site 6: HAL
IR-
Thermometer

Heat Stress IR- Thermal

Meter Camera
Site2: Kodathi

Source; TERI- Sustainable Habitat Division

 • Case Study-Bangalore
SITE 1: COMMERCIAL STREET SITE 2: KODATHI

• Roof area :86% • Roof area :4.6%

• Road Area :13% • Road Area :7.1%
• Green Area/ open Area :1% • Green Area/ open :88.3%
Area
• City Centre • Suburban/ Rural
• Densely urban area • Open fields/ farm
• No vegetation and open lands
areas • Less built-up

2-4m
2-4m

Source; TERI- Sustainable Habitat Division

 • Case Study-Bangalore
SITE 4: PALACE ROAD Site 5: Ulsoor Lake
SITE 3: IISC
• Roof area :22.7% • Roof area :21.8% • Roof area :32.5%
• Road Area :0% • Road Area :15.2% • Road Area :15.8%
• Green Area/ open Area : 77.3% • Green Area/ open Area :63% • Water body Area :34.1%
• Green Area/ open Area :17.6%
• Urban area • Urban area
• Highly vegetated area with all matured • Moderately developed • Urban area/ city center
trees • Large open areas with less • Development around a water
• Less Built up matured trees body
• Less open area and medium
vegetation

2-4m
2- 2-4m
4m

Source; TERI- Sustainable Habitat Division

 • Case Study-Bangalore Observations
• It is evident that though the air temperatures
during daytime are lower due to less solar
exposure, night temperatures increase
drastically in densely developed Commercial
Street.

• About 0.8 to 2 deg C higher mean air

temperature was observed during the
measured period that confirms the presence
of urban heat island.

• Higher night temperatures (about 1.5 deg

C) observed at IISc site where all matured
trees are present. It is thus suggested that
the small leaf trees are more effective
compared to big leaf trees in this aspect.

• Water body located near to the city centre

has a significant impact on the surrounding
micro climate due to lower air temperature
and higher relative humidity in the night.

Source; TERI- Sustainable Habitat Division

 • Case Study-Bangalore

• Narrow streets with respect to lower solar

exposure is important in case of pedestrian
movement. Hence, roof is the more critical
area to change its surface type and reducing
the air temperatures

• Higher temperatures during winter nights might be

helpful in providing human thermal comfort and
hence reducing the energy costs.

• Using maintenance free insulation reflective

coatings are helpful to reduce the
maintenance and operational energy costs.

• Infiltration increases and thus significant rise in

ground water table by use of grid pavers

Source; TERI- Sustainable Habitat Division

• UHI IN INDIA

Daytime variability of the UHI/UCI phenomenon during the pre-monsoon season shows
contrasting results than those were obtained for the post monsoon season.
For instance, 66 and 51% of the total 89 urban areas show the UHI effect in February and
March, and most of them are located in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, north-west India, and the
south-west coastal regions of India.
Tropical Monsoon (TM), Tropical Savannah (TS), Warm Semi-arid
(WSA), Warm Desert (WD), Warm Humid Subtropical (WHS), Hot
Humid Subtropical (HHS), Cold Desert (CD), Cold Semi-arid (CSA),
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14213-2
 • UHI IN INDIA
Urban areas with UCI phenomenon were largely located in the western and central parts of
india. However, daytime UHI intensity was positive during the pre-monsoon season (FMAM) for
urban areas in the gangetic plain, north-western india (punjab and haryana), and southern tip of
the west coast.
In contrast, during the post-monsoon season (ondj), more than 65% of urban areas show the uhi
effect. Nevertheless, urban areas located in the semi-arid and arid regions of western india
continued to show UCI phenomenon.
More than 95% of urban areas showed uhi phenomenon in night-time during the pre and post
monsoon seasons.
Impervious materials in the urban-core region has high thermal capacity in comparison to
surrounding non-urban areas, which results in larger long-wave radiation from urban areas.
Therefore, UHI during night-time is strongly correlated to the degree of imperviousness in urban
areas.
Most of the non-urban areas are dominated by agriculture, with more than 70 (out of total 89)
non-urban areas have higher than 50% of total land cover as agriculture areas.
The night-time uhi intensity is not so strongly associated with the vegetation variability in non-
urban areas.
Other than agriculture and irrigation, climatic factors like precipitation and air temperature, as
well as the size and population of urban areas can also influence the UHI intensity.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14213-2
• UHI GLOBALLY
They all show clear evidence of UHI warming, even
for small population density increases at very low
population density. A population density of only 100
persons per sq. km exhibits average warming of
about 0.8 deg. C compared to a nearby
unpopulated temperature monitoring location.

urban heat island (UHI) warming accompanying an

increase in population density. The analysis is based
upon 4x per day temperature observations in the
NOAA International Surface Hourly (ISH) dataset, and
on 1 km population density data for the year 2000.

In this analysis, the number of independent

temperature monitoring stations having at least 1
neighboring station with a lower population density
within 150 km of it, increased from 2,183 in 2000, to
4,290 in 2009…an increase by a factor of 2 in ten
years. The number of all resulting station pairs
increased from 9,832 in 2000 to 30,761 in 2009, an
increase of 3X.

http://www.drroyspencer.com
• UHI GLOBALLY
The following graph shows the
average rate of warming with
population density increase
(vertical axis), as a function of
the average populations of
the station pairs. Each data
point represents a population
bin average for the
intersection of a higher
population station with its
lower-population station mate.
The global-average lower tropospheric
temperature remained high, at +0.61 deg. C
for February, 2010. This is about the same as
January, which in our new Version 5.3 of the
UAH dataset was +0.63 deg. C. February was
second warmest in the 32-year record, behind
Feb 1998 which was itself the second warmest
of all months.
most rapid rate of warming with population
increase is at the lowest population
densities.
For instance, a population increase from 0
to 20 people per sq. km gives a warming of
+0.22 deg C, but for a densely populated
location having 1,000 people per sq. km, it
takes an additional 1,500 people (to 2,500
people per sq. km) to get the same 0.22
deg. C warming. (Of course, if one can find
stations whose environment has not
changed at all, that would be the preferred
situation.)
http://www.drroyspencer.com
 • UHI GLOBALLY
• The 419 big cities with a population larger than 1 million
include some large urban agglomerations
• Mid-to-high latitude cities (e.g., Beijing, Vancouver)
have larger seasonal amplitude of daytime SUHII than
their low latitude sisters
• cities with a more seasonal greening contrast between
urban area and suburban area also have a more
seasonal urban heat island.
• The nighttime SUHII exhibits a small summer to winter
amplitude of less than 1 °C for more than 86% of the big
cities.
• The seasonal amplitude of nighttime SUHII is also more
pronounced in cold regions (high latitudes) compared
to warm regions (low latitudes).
• Generally under clear sky conditions, larger LST means
larger sensible heat flux which could result in larger
surface air temperature and higher urban boundary
layer.
• Likewise, surface urban heat island magnitude and
diurnal amplitude is larger than that of air urban heat
island.
• In addition, recent study has highlighted the
importance of effects of climate conditions such as
wind speed and cloud cover on the magnitude of the
heat island effect at high spatiotemporal resolution.
• According to the recent report of IPCC, since the
industrial revolution, global land mean temperature
increased by 0.84 ± 0.37 °C, and warm night frequency
also increased.

Source; dx.doi.org/10.1021/es2030438 | Environ. Sci. Technol. 2012
Spatial distribution of (A) average daytime SUHII difference between summer and winter (°C) and (B) average
nighttime SUHII difference between summer and winter (°C) averaged over the period 2003−2008 across 419
global big cities. The two right plots beside (A) and (B) map are the latitudinal average of daytime and nighttime
SUHII difference between summer and winter (°C), respectively. The black line indicates the average value, and
the gray shaded areas are the uncertainty range indicated by mean ± SD.
 HOW TO REDUCE HEAT ISLAND
16 IMPACTS

 Three fundamental methods:

1. Trees
 Protection and additional planting trees and vegetation
 Use of shade trees for energy benefits

2. Reflective Surfaces
 Increased solar reflectivity of urban surfaces
Cool roofs
More reflective paving materials
3. Water Related Effects
 Increased evaporative capabilities of urban surfaces,
which also benefit stormwater runoff and water quality
Green roofs
Porous paving
Source: Urban Heat Island Basics, 2008, Reducing Urban Heat Islands:
Compendium of Strategies, U.S. EPA,
 1.0 TREES
 Trees have a cooling effect because of shade 17
and the moisture transpired through leaf
surfaces.
 Trees decline in numbers primarily through urban
development, but equivalent amounts of trees
are not replaced.
 Tree maintenance and protection
 Conservation and maintenance of existing trees are essential
to avoid increased heat island effects over time.
 Tree planting
 Tree planting during development and redevelopment is
critical to
achieving a viable urban tree population.
 On-going public and private sector initiatives are needed, with
active encouragement of planting by homeowners and
property owners.
Maintaining and protecting the existing
urban tree population is essential for
urban heat island mitigation.

Source: Urban Heat Island Basics, 2008, Reducing Urban Heat Islands:
Compendium of Strategies, U.S. EPA,
 2.0 REFLECTIVE SURFACE
 Rooftops and pavement comprise most of the 17
surface area covered by urban development.
 More reflective materials are available for
many roofing and paving applications.
 2.1 Cool roofing
 2.2 Cool paving

3.1 GREEN ROOFS 23

 Green roofs place vegetation on a roof assembly

that includes a drainage system with a growing
medium for plants.
 Green roofs cool by (1) shading the roof surface
and (2) through moisture evaporation from soils
and plants.
 These roofs may be extensive systems, which are
installed with a thin planting soil (4 to 6 inches),
or intensive systems, with deeper soils and larger
plants.
Source: Urban Heat Island Basics, 2008, Reducing Urban Heat Islands:
Compendium of Strategies, U.S. EPA,