LITERATURE REVIEW ON THE STUDY OF URBAN HEAT ISLAND IMPACTS ON BUILDING INTERIORS

THOR YI CHUN (SB/695/12), YEONG KAM LOONG (SB/696/12)

School of Housing, Building and Planning, University Science Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia

Email: yichun.thor@gmail.com, satyrl88@gmail.com

ABSTRACTS Urban heat island effect (UHI) is known to reduce human comfortability, where urban surfaces absorb heat and increasing the air temperature comparatively to its surrounding rural area. Researches claim that UHI have directly affecting the change of air temperature inside of a building. By comparing data collected from an urbanized area and green space, this study investigates the impacts of UHI on the building interiors. The UHI was determined by using the land surface temperature (LST) and its effect on the air temperature (AT) of building interiors nearby it throughout a day. The study aims to identify whether there is a direct relationship between UHI and AT of interiors, and by how far this relationship goes.

INTRODUCTION Heat island effect is often related to a city's development and human activities. As urban areas develop, buildings, roads, and other infrastructure will replace open land and vegetation, which resulted changes in their landscape. Surfaces that were once permeable and moist become dry and impermeable.[1] The progressive replacement of natural surfaces by man-made materials through urbanization becomes the main cause of heat island formation. Man-made surfaces mostly composed of a high percentage of non-reflective and water-resistant construction materials, compared to the moisture-trapping soils and vegetation on the natural surfaces which absorbs radiation in the evaporation process and release water vapors to cool the air in their vicinity. Man-made material tends to absorb a significant proportion of radiation where it will be released as heat later on.[2]
[1] [2]

http://www.epa.gov/heatisld/about/index.htm (p1) Baumann, P.R. 2009. Urban heat island lesson. Geocarto International, 24(6): 473-483.

The changes of the surface causes certain region to become warmer, forming an 'island' of higher temperatures. On a typical sunny day, the sun can heat dry, exposed urban surface, such as roofs and pavement, to temperatures 27-50C hotter than the air[3], while shaded or surfaces with soft landscapes remain close to air temperatures. The urban heat island (UHI) bubble is common in Malaysia. It is observed that large cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Seremban and Georgetown can be 3C hotter than the suburbs area.[ 4 ] Research has also showed the impact of the UHI in urban microclimate changes e.g. intensity and frequency of rainfall.[5]

IMPACTS UHI reinforces the increase of air temperature, thus increasing the overall energy consumption for refrigeration and air-conditioning. This will lead to the increasing in energy production, which will eventually generates higher emissions of heat trapping greenhouse gases and pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide, etc. The whole process is an inevitable cycle. Excessive heat events due to ill-ventilated outdoor spaces or internal spaces of residential and commercial buildings with poor thermal insulation, creates dramatic temperature increases, and can result in high rates of mortality. It has been estimated that the heat exposure leads to more than 8,000 deaths in the United States.[6] Although some developers claimed that UHI creates heat waves that can be transferred into the interior of homes and buildings through roofs[ 7], causing the internal air temperature of buildings to rise significantly; there is no specific case study to be carried out yet to prove the claiming. Most of the impact studies are on a bigger scale, which stated how UHI affect a whole particular area of a city, instead of the building interiors itself.

[3]

Berdahl P. and S. Bretz. 1997. Preliminary survey of the solar reflectance of cool roofing materials. Energy and Buildings 25:149-158. [4] Sin H. T. and Chan N. W. 2004. The urban heat island phenomenon in Penang Island: Some observations during the wet and dry season. In Jamaluddin Md. Jahi, Kadir Arifin, Salmijah Surif and Shaharudin Idrus (eds). Proceedings 2nd. Bangi World Conference on Environmental Management. Facing Changing Conditions. 13 14 September, 2004. Bangi, Malaysia. 504 516. [5] Ahmad, F and Norlida, M. 2004. Can we modify our weather to decrease floods? The urban heat island connection. Paper presented at Persidangan Pengurus Kanan JPS Malaysia. 25-27 Ogos 2004. Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. [6] Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 2006. Extreme Heat: A Prevention Guide to Promote Your Personal Health and Safety. [7] http://www.epa.gov/heatisld/resources/pdf/heatislandsrevew.pdf

. TYPES OF HEAT ISLAND EFFECT There are several types of heat islands which includes both mesoscale[ 8 ] and microscale. Urban heat island effect is the well-known mesoscale phenomenon in which the atmospheric temperature in an urbanized area is significantly higher in relation to their rural areas. The studies on urban heat island effect requires wider scope of studies. This includes the climatologically and topography records for an urban area (~1km2) within certain amount of time (6 months-10 years)[9]. By comparison, our study concentrates on the microscale surface heat island effect. It is observed from the difference of thermal data between the air temperatures and land surface temperature for an urban hot spot which are poorly vegetated.

METHODOLOGY AND STUDY AREA Ideally, to measure the effect of UHI, the temperature found at a particular location within a city has to be subtracted from the temperature that would be measured at the same location without the presence of the urban context. Since such a measurement will not be possible in a real world, many surrogate techniques can be applied to assess a heat island. One of the techniques that can be used is by taking approximation of the simultaneous temperature difference between an urban locale and rural location with almost similar topographic features.[ 10 ] With this technique, the detailed characteristics and magnitude of the UHI at any given time can be determined. The selected areas for this study located at Jalan Magazine, Georgetown, in term of urban context, where concrete facades of buildings and pavements; and high traffic flow, creates an ideal UHI for studies; while another location for the rural context, located at FajarHarapan, the hostel within USM main campus, which is shaded with trees and covered with green landscapes. Both locations were selected due to the similarity of the geographic features: flat lands with no surrounding hills. This negates the temperature differences caused by wind channeling effect. Lower wind speed allow heat to accumulate near the surface. The weather plays a very significant role in this study. Clear sky conditions were expected to create a more intense heating onto the surfaces. Several dates were selected (30 Nov 2012 and 3 Dec 2012) to carry out the research due to the weather

[8] [9]

Urban Heat Islands (General) Mills, G. 2004. The Urban Canopy Layer Heat Island Voogt, J. A., T. R. Oke, 1997: Complete Urban Surface Temperatures. J. Appl. Meteor., 36, 11171132. [10] The Urban Heat Island Effect at Fairbanks, Alaska N. Magee, J. Curtis, and G. Wendler 1998.

changing at the end of the year, where the UHI will be greatly reduced with increasing cloud cover and rainfall.[11]

Site A: Surface and air temperature was taken at the shaded and unshaded walkway as well as interior of room inside hostel FajarHarapan.
[11]

Arnfield, A. J. 2003

The distance between shaded and unshaded measurement points are within 6m distance while the measurement point for hostel interior is within 15m above ground, 10m perpendicular distance from shaded measurement point. The measurement points are all within 30m radius of the site.

Site B: Surface and air temperature was taken at the shaded and unshaded walkway next to 1st Avenue as well as interior of adjacent restaurant opposite Jalan Magazine.

The distance between shaded and unshaded measurement points are within 4m apart, while interior measurement point is within 12m distance from the outdoor measurement points. All measurement points are at ground level.

DATA FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS Based on the acquired data, the indoor air temperature is consistently lower (3-5 C) than outdoor (sum of shaded and unshaded temperature divided by 2) even though there is a sharp drop in outdoor temperature at Site A during 4.30pm. This is due to the existence of vegetation and green area which speeds up the cooling process. However, lower indoor air temperature was recorded in the restaurant opposite Site B at 4.30pm (32.7C) compared to Site A (33.1C) even though outdoor temperature remained higher Site B for 2.9C. This shows that UHI effect does not necessary influence indoor temperature but that does not mean the environment at the coffee shop opposite Site B is more desirable due to the higher indoor humidity (low ceiling height, poor ventilation) and dust (generated from intensive traffic at Jalan Magazine)

Average air temperature difference between indoor and outdoor environment at USM Fajar hostel (30 Nov)
38.0 37.0 Temperature (C) 36.0 35.0 34.0 33.0 32.0 31.0 30.0 Indoor Outdoor 2.30pm 33.3 36.2 3.30pm 33.8 37.5 4.30pm 33.1 34.3

Average air temperature difference between indoor and outdoor environment near 1st Avenue (3 Dec)
39.0 38.0 37.0 36.0 35.0 34.0 33.0 32.0 31.0 30.0 29.0 Indoor Outdoor

Temperature (C)

2.30pm 33.2 37.3

3.30pm 34.8 38.4

4.30pm 32.7 37.4

It is noticed that both the average (sum of shaded, unshaded and indoor temperature value divided by 3) air and surface temperature of the site at Site B is consistently higher than Site A throughout the measurement period from 2.30pm to 4.30pm. It is hypothesised that the higher amount of vegetation and green area at Site A has contributed in the reduction of outdoor heat island effect.

Average air temperature difference of measurement points between 2 sites

38.0 37.0 Temperature (C) 36.0 35.0 34.0 33.0 32.0 Usm Fajar hostel (30th Nov) 1st Avenue (3rd Dec) 2.30pm 35.2 35.9 3.30pm 36.3 37.2 4.30pm 33.9 35.8

Average surface temperature difference of measurement points between 2 sites

45.0 40.0 Temperature (C) 35.0 30.0 25.0 20.0 15.0 10.0 5.0 0.0 Usm Fajar hostel (30th Nov) 1st Avenue (3rd Dec) 2.30pm 33.8 39.5 3.30pm 33.7 39.8 4.30pm 32.3 39.2

However, a closer observation revealed that both indoor surface and air temperature difference between the 2 sites is negligible (0.5-1.5 C) as compared to the outdoor surface temperature (12.5-15.5 C shaded; 2.5-5.5C unshaded) and air temperature (1.7-3.8 C shaded; 0.1-2 C unshaded) as shown in the diagram next page. This is contrary to our initial hypothesis that the indoor thermal comfort is influenced by UHI.

Air temperature difference between 2 sites:

2.30pm
39 38 Temperature (C) 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 Usm fajar hostel (30th Nov) 1st Avenue (3rd Dec) Shaded 34.5 36.8 Unshaded 37.8 37.7 Indoor 33.3 33.2

3.30pm
40 39 Temperature (C) 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 Usm Fajar hostel (30th Nov) 1st Avenue (3rd Dec) Shaded 36.1 37.8 Unshaded 38.9 38.9 Indoor 33.8 34.8

4.30pm
39 38 Temperature (C) 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 Usm Fajar hostel (30th Nov) 1st Avenue (3rd Dec) Shaded 33.2 37.0 Unshaded 35.3 37.8 Indoor 33.1 32.7

Surface temperature difference between 2 sites:

2.30pm
50 45 40 Temperature (C) 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Usm Fajar hostel (30th Nov) 1st Avenue (3rd Dec) Shaded 28.5 41.0 Unshaded 43.5 46.0 Indoor 29.5 31.5

3.30pm
50.0 45.0 40.0 Temperature (C) 35.0 30.0 25.0 20.0 15.0 10.0 5.0 0.0 Usm Fajar hostel (30th Nov) 1st Avenue (3rd Dec) Shaded 28.0 43.5 Unshaded 43.5 46.0 Indoor 29.5 30.0

4.30pm
50.0 45.0 40.0 Temperature (C) 35.0 30.0 25.0 20.0 15.0 10.0 5.0 0.0 Usm Fajar hostel (30th Nov) 1st Avenue (3rd Dec) Shaded 28.0 41.5 Unshaded 40.0 45.5 Indoor 29.0 30.5

It is observed that significantly higher air temperature of Site B under sun exposure at 4.30pm is due to its higher traffic intensity as well as trapped heat around the area under urban heat island effect. Site A has a significantly lower air and surface temperature under the shade compared to Site B due to its choice of trees of larger canopy which provides adequate shade to its surroundings from direct exposure to sun as compared to decorative miniature tress lining the walkway at 1st Avenue. This aligns with Saito et al[12] that the cooling effect of the vegetation in urban area extents to a distance of 20m of the hard built area in Kumamoto.
Air temperature difference between 2 surface ground materials under direct exposure to sun within 6m distance at Fajar hostel, USM
40.0 Temperature (C) 39.0 38.0 37.0 36.0 35.0 34.0 33.0 32.0 31.0 Grass Brick pavement 2.30pm 36.1 37.8 3.30pm 37.0 38.9 4.30pm 34.0 35.3

Hence, it is suggested that urban heat island effect does not directly affect indoor thermal comfort as the heat is not intensely trapped at one area due to the fact that the height of the heat island is 3 to 5 times the building height.[13] However, further research has to be done to measure the indoor temperature of higher floors between 5th-20thlevel to strengthen the point mentioned. The challenge to search for a subject building within the mentioned height at urban context which is non-mechanically air conditioned, is valid.

RECOMMENDATIONS It is acknowledged that the usage of mechanical air conditioning system in urban area is not solely due to the heat of the environment, but indoor humidity, air pollution, noise generated and extra heat generated by traffic as well. The usage of
[12]

I. Saito, O. Ishihara, T. Katayama, Study of the effect of green area on the thermal environment in an urban area, Energy and Building15/16 (19901991) 493498. [13] B. Givoni, Climate Considerations in Building and Urban Design, Wiley, USA, 1998.

mechanical air conditioning system eventually creates a vicious cycle which further heats up the urban area with the heat discharged from its compressors. Hence, the solutions for urban heat island effect have to be executed on various aspects simultaneously and incrementally: Better public transport reduces the usage of private vehicle on the road which cuts down noxious gas emission to the surrounding. Increase the number of vegetation and green area to filter the amount of sun radiation the building and ground surface. When urban outdoor quality has reached to healthy level, natural ventilation is encouraged whenever possible to reduce heat generated from air conditioning compressors. Greening of building faade is recommended to reduce heat absorption from building walls. Reduction of speculative commercial (office) and residential development which further contributes to urban heat island effect. Any new development should be designed for possible natural ventilation application in the future when outdoor air quality is improved with the measures mentioned above. These recommendations would require high amount of political will in terms of planning policy making which involves a wide range individuals from town planners to stakeholders and regular citizens. None of the mentioned points above will succeed without the cooperation and involvement from either party in reality. CONCLUSION Urban heat island effect has always been the by-product of rapid urbanisation in the cities which constantly pushing infrastructure to the limit within the limited land at the same time taking the life out of rural villages with farmers emigrating to the cities to escape poverty due to the imbalance of economic priorities in favour to the cities.[14] The Singapore MRT breakdowns have shown that there are limits of capacity in every urban infrastructure. To solve the problem of urban heat island effect in cities is to get to the bottom of it: reversing rapid urbanisation from the rural to urban into urban to rural with equal economic advantage provided to the rural professions. This will spare the cities from its current unsustainable sprawl as wells as heat and waste generation from the ever increasing inhabitants.

[14]

K.S Tay, Rubanisation.org.