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Heat Island Effect
Urban heat islands (UHIs) are regions of characteristic warmth associated with cities. They are perhaps the clearest expressions of unintentional climate modification by humans. Weather patterns, geographic setting, and urban configuration cause UHIs to vary in space and time; the heat island effect is typically most pronounced in city centers where building and population densities are highest, and during calm, cloudless evenings that promote maximum thermal differences between the city and surrounding countryside. UHIs have several economic, ecological, and social effects, notably on energy consumption, dispersal of air pollutants, and human health and comfort. Climate-sensitive urban design demonstrates some potential for mitigation of these effects, where appropriate.
The UHI effect traditionally denotes a near-surface air temperature difference between the urban canopy-layer (the layer of atmosphere below ...
- City Organizations, Movements, and Planning
- Agenda 21
- Brownfields
- Carrying Capacity
- Charrette
- City Politics
- Civic Space
- Ecoindustrial Parks
- Environmental Impact Assessment
- Environmental Planning
- Green Communities and Neighborhood Planning
- Green Design, Construction and Operations
- Greenfield Sites
- Infrastructure
- Intermodal Transportation
- Millennium Development Goals
- Mitigation
- NIMBY
- Personal Rapid Transit
- Resilience
- Sustainability Indicators
- Sustainable Development
- Transit-Oriented Development
- Transportation Demand Management
- City Profiles
- Austin, Texas
- Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Barcelona, Spain
- Beijing, China
- Bogotá, Colombia
- Chattanooga, Tennessee
- Chernobyl, Ukraine
- Chicago, Illinois
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Curitiba, Brazil
- Dongtan, China
- Dzerzhinsk, Russia
- Hamburg, Germany
- Kabwe, Zambia
- Kampala, Uganda
- La Oroya, Peru
- Linfen, China
- London, England
- Los Angeles, California
- Malmö, Sweden
- Mexico City, Mexico
- New York City, New York
- Norilsk, Russia
- Portland, Oregon
- Reykjavik, Iceland
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- San Francisco, California
- Seattle, Washington
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Sukinda, India
- Sumgayit, Azerbaijan
- Sydney, Australia
- Tianying, China
- Vancouver, Canada
- Vapi, India
- Green City Challenges
- Adaptation, Climate Change
- Adaptive Reuse
- Air Quality
- Biodiversity
- Carbon Footprints
- Coastal Zone Management
- Combined Sewer Overflow
- Commuting
- Construction and Demolition Waste
- Denitrification
- Density
- Ecological Footprint
- Ecosystem Restoration
- Embodied Energy
- Energy Efficiency
- Environmental Justice
- Environmental Risk
- Food Deserts
- Food Security
- Garbage
- Greywater
- Gridlock
- Heat Island Effect
- Indoor Air Quality
- Landfills
- Light Pollution
- Natural Capital
- Nonpoint Source Pollution
- Ports
- Power Grids
- Recycling in Cities
- Sea Level Rise
- Stormwater Management
- Transit
- Waste Disposal
- Water Conservation
- Water Pollution
- Water Treatment
- Water, Sources and Delivery
- Watershed Protection
- Wetlands
- Green City Solutions
- Bicycling
- Biophilia
- Bioregion
- Bluebelts
- Bus Rapid Transit
- Carbon Neutral
- Carbon Trading
- Carpooling
- Cities for Climate Protection
- Citizen Participation
- Combined Heat and Power (Cogeneration)
- Community Gardens
- Compact Development (New Urbanism)
- Composting
- Congestion Pricing
- Conservation Subdivision
- Daylighting
- Distributed Generation
- District Energy
- Ecovillages
- Green Belt
- Green Energy
- Green Fleets (Vehicles)
- Green Housing
- Green Infrastructure
- Green Jobs
- Green Landscaping
- Green Procurement and Purchasing
- Green Roofs
- Greening Suburbia
- Greyfield Development
- Habitat Conservation and Restoration
- Healthy Cities
- Historic Preservation
- Infill Development
- LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
- Location-Efficient Mortgage
- Masdar Ecocity
- Mayors Climate Protection Agreement
- Parks, Greenways, and Open Space
- Renewable Energy
- Smart Growth
- Traffic Calming
- Universal Design
- Urban Agriculture
- Urban Forests
- Walkability (Pedestrian-Friendly Streets)
- Xeriscaping
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