The concept of urban heat island (UHI)

The heterogeneous surface heat fluxes between urban and rural environments produce
positive temperature anomalies over the urban and negative over the rural areas. This
warming of the urban more than a nearby rural location is the phenomenon termed as the
urban heat island (UHI) effect. The intensity of an UHI is mainly measured in two ways: 1)
as the difference between the surface temperature of the urban area and a neighbouring rural
area and; 2) as the difference in the land surface temperature of the urban area compared to
the neighbouring rural areas. This phenomenon is common in all urban areas regardless of
the climatic region and is manifested more strongly in winter than summer for temperate
regions, and more strongly during dry seasons than wet seasons in tropical regions. however
there are many factors that influence the magnitude of its intensity some of which are
discussed later. The UHI intensity in a city has been found to be apparent when winds are
weak and skies are clear.

The UHI effect is likely to affect urban climate by enhancing convective activities. Studies
have shown that the presence of the UHI enhances urban rainfall. Under calm regional wind
flow, a relatively low pressure may be created over the city by the anomalously high
temperature of the UHI and cooler air rushes into the urban area causing warm air to rise.
This vertical motion can create convective thunderstorms that may produce rainfall in the city
and mostly at night when the UHI is strongest. On the other hand, when the regional flow is
unstable, winds tend to diverge around the city because of increased surface roughness thus
creating maximum precipitation on the lateral and downwind edges of the city with minimum
precipitation located over the urban area. Other factors that may induce changes in the natural
precipitation in an urban environment include modification of microphysical and dynamical
processes of passing clouds through the addition of condensation nuclei from industrial
pollutants increase in low level mechanical turbulence from urban obstructions and
modification of low level atmospheric moisture content by additions of industrially generated
plumes from cooling towers.
Mechanism of Generation of UHI

Using the conventional heat transfer theory, the simplest type of model that can predict the time-
varying temperature of a system is a lumped model, also known as a zero-order model. A zero-order
governing equation for the transient lumped urban temperature T is given by:

mc dT
= (1 − α)qsol + qan − qc − qe − qconv − qrad; where m is the mass of the urban fabric, c
A dt
the specific heat, A the normal surface area, t time, and α the albedo. The heat fluxes (q, inW/m2) are
the incident solar flux qsol , the anthropogenic heat addition qanthro, the conduction to the deep ground
qcond , heat loss via evapotranspiration qevap, heat loss via convection to the surrounding air qconv, and
radiative heat loss to the sky qrad .

The incident solar flux qsol is relatively straightforward and includes both the beam and diffuse

components. The only other heat gain is due to anthropogenic causes and consists of three
contributions (qanthro = qelec + qfuel + qhuman, where qelec is due to electricity consumption and qfuel to fuel
consumption (including for transportation), and qhuman represents metabolic heat generation).

Considering the surface heat budget of a typical rural and urban surface energy, if the
incident solar radiation, for example is, qI, is 7.6 kW h m2 day-1 for both locations since both
locations receive energy of equal intensity from the sun. In rural forest, with an albedo of say
α= 0.25 which is typical of a rural ecosystem, the reflected solar radiation, qR , is 1.9 kW h m2
day-1 and in the city where the albedo is much lower (say 0.06) is 0.4 kW h m2 day-1. Albedo
is a measure of diffuse reflection of solar radiation and indicates how much light falling on a
surface is reflected or absorbed; a value of 1 indicates a black body where the entire incident
light is absorbed while a value of 0 indicates bright surface where all incident light is
reflected. All surfaces therefore fall between 0-1 depending on how dark or how bright a
surface is. From the given example therefore, the urban environment’s has the capacity to
absorb more of the sun’s energy (since it reflects less) than the rural environment and thus its
surface temperature increases (See the illustration on figure 2.2). The differences in the
reflected solar radiation, anthropogenic heat, latent heat, and outgoing infrared terms between
the urban and rural locations lead to urban island thermal circulations and hence heat islands.
a) b)
Fig 2.2: A typical rural and urban surface energy balance (the values are in units of kW h m 2 day−1
(Shepherd 2005)); b) day-time urban heat island profile

Anthropogenic heat enters the environment directly from the many human activities going on
while only a part of the solar radiation heat up the environment directly. Urban populations
influence the formation of UHIs through direct heat release through metabolism and
indirectly through heat generating activities such as domestic heating, automobiles, power
plants, air conditioners among other sources. As the earth’s surface gets replaced with
concrete building, asphalt pavements and tarmac roads in an urban setting and human
activities increases, higher solar radiation is retained through greater thermal conductivity.
On the other hand the ability to release the stored energy becomes low due to the sky view
factor (defined as the ratio of the amount of sky hemisphere visible from ground level to that
of unobstructed hemisphere) and low albedo. This results in high heat retention within the
building structures. The reduced vegetation cover also reduces cooling through
evapotranspiration. High roughness reduces the amount of convective heat removal and
transfer by winds. Increased human activities especially in transport and industries add
aerosols and gaseous pollutants. The gaseous pollutant influence UHI formation mainly
through the greenhouse gas effect; i.e. absorbing outgoing long wave radiation and re-
radiating it back to the environment. The overall effect is a warmer urban environment as
compared to the surrounding rural environment particularly at night.

As anthropogenic factors mainly enhance the strength of the UHI effect, there are also
climatic factors that may increase or decrease this effect. For instance, winds help to regulate
temperature by cooling down the hot air with the cooler surrounding air. In cities and heavily
built up areas, the wind speed is lower with frequent gust experienced in urban canyons due
to tunnelling and channelling. The varied urban morphology results in an increased frictional
drag on the air flowing over the urban terrain and the thermal convergence created by the
UHI slows down the wind. The insufficient air circulation and the low wind speeds tend to
retain heat and pollutants in the urban area thus strengthening the UHI. An increase in cloud
cover reduces the solar heat intensity and hence reduces the radiative cooling at night, while
calm days and clear skies maximize the amount of radiation received. Other factors such as
building design and building materials also play a role in the amount of heat retained in an
urban environment (Fig 2.3).

In coastal cities, the UHI interact with the ocean breeze and the prevailing synoptic wind
system to produce a unique circulation system that is largely dependent on the strength of the
ocean breezes, the intensity of the UHI and the speed and direction of the prevailing winds.
During the day, this interaction intensifies the sea breeze circulation and hence a chain flow is
created that is able to transport pollutants and heat away from the urban area. With continued
urbanization, the day-time heating is enhanced through heat absorption by materials of the
buildings, shading and multiple reflections caused by the building geometry and the
anthropogenic heat release. This stored heat is released into the atmosphere in the evening
and at night thus raising the night time temperatures. The enhanced night temperatures
weaken the ocean-land temperature contrast at night in an urban environment and hence the
land breeze is weakened and may even cause a reverse of the land-ocean breeze especially
when the prevailing winds from ocean to land are strong. The vertical mixing of the urban air
is enhanced and thus the urban environment may cool faster than the surrounding. On the
other hand, over the less urbanized areas, the land cools faster than the adjacent ocean
through radiative cooling, the temperature contrast between land and ocean sets up the land to
ocean breeze when the prevailing winds are weak and or creates stable conditions when the
winds are of equal strength. Therefore the rural environment takes longer to cool than the
urban area and thus an urban cool island may be created under such circumstances.
Fig. 2.3 Factors that influence the generation of Urban Heat Island (UHI)

Determination of UHI intensity

The UHI phenomenon is common in cities regardless of the climatic region and is manifested
more strongly at night-time than during daytime. The intensity of an UHI is normally
measured as the surface air temperature difference between a location in an urban area and a
location in neighboring rural area. This intensity is more apparent when winds are weak and
skies are clear. Studies show that the intensity of an UHI is higher in winter than in summer
in temperate regions and in dry than wet season in the tropical regions. Studies also show that
the UHI intensity can exhibit diurnal and seasonal cycles, is modulated by wind and cloud
conditions and its magnitude is proportional to the size of a city.

Various methods have been used to determine the existence of UHIs ranging from trend
analysis of long term temperature data, direct measurement of temperature in urban and rural
locations for a given period of time and satellite thermal imagery of the land surface
temperature. Some of the assumptions made in determining the intensity of UHI using
surface air temperature, are that the landscape effects on both sites of measurement are
insignificant and the rural station has insignificant urban effects. However there are
limitations of choice of such urban and rural stations because for many areas, the rural
stations close to urban areas are also facing urbanization as urban populations increase. There
are therefore few adequate meteorological stations especially in the rural areas that have not
been influenced by urbanization particularly in countries where urban growth is not
restricted. Another challenge in determining the intensity of UHI is the limited time in which
data is available particularly since UHI is dependent on climatic conditions which changes
spatially and temporally. These limitations give rise to underestimation or overestimation of
the urban effect on temperature and makes rational comparison between cities difficult. The
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) advises that for purposes of measuring the
intensity of an UHI, one should use urban and rural weather stations which give the largest
and least impacts respectively to a city.

From the foregoing, intensities of UHI have been determined using a range of different
methods. The main method involves computing the temperature difference between a well-
developed urban area and least developed area or between two differently built up areas
within a city. The methods of data collection for determining the UHI intensity are also
varied in terms of the type, time scale of data collected as well as spatial coverage of the
urban and rural areas. For instance some of the data are collected using fixed station
measurements, air sensors fixed at buildings within certain locations for a fixed period of
time, as well as trend analysis of long term series of meteorological temperature data for
weather stations situated in urban and rural locations respectively.

Impacts of UHI

The case studies of Nairobi and Mombasa clearly indicates urbanization in Kenya is resulting
into enhanced urban air and surface temperatures. These elevated temperatures from UHI can
affect not only a community’s environment and quality of life but also changes the micro-
climate of the areas and particularly in a coastal city. Some of the direct and indirect impacts
of UHI include:

Increased Energy Consumption

Heat islands increase demand for air conditioning to cool buildings. The coast of Kenya is
much warmer than the highlands even in the absence of the city. With enhances temperature,
the in cities, electricity demand for air conditioning would increase with increase in
temperature. This increase in energy demand contributes to higher electricity expenses which
has a direct socio-economic effect and indirect environmental effect.

Heat islands increase both overall electricity demand, as well as peak energy demand. Peak
demand generally occurs on hot season weekday afternoons, when offices and homes are
running air-conditioning systems, lights, and appliances. During extreme heat events, which
are exacerbated by heat islands, the increased demand for air conditioning can overload
systems and require a utility to institute controlled, rolling brownouts or blackouts to avoid
power outages.

Raised emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants

As demand for electricity increases due to higher demand for air conditioning, demand for
supply of electricity may increase use of fossil fuel power plant to meet much of this demand
particularly when hydro-power generation is low. In Kenya for instance, electricity
production is dependent to some extent on the performance of the rainy season and prolonged
droughts usually results in low hydro-power production and the use of fossil fuel power
generation to bridge the gap. Use of fossil fuels in turn, leads to an increase in air pollutant
emissions into the atmosphere. These pollutants are harmful to human health and also
contribute to complex air quality problems such as the formation of ground-level ozone, fine
particulate matter and acid rain. Increased use of fossil-fuel-powered plants also increases
emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, which not only exacerbates the UHI
but also contribute to global climate change.

In addition to their impact on energy-related emissions, elevated temperatures can directly

increase the rate of ground-level ozone formation. Ground-level ozone is formed when
nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds react in the presence of sunlight and hot
weather. If all other variables are equal, such as the level of precursor emissions in the air and
wind speed and direction, more ground-level ozone will form as the environment becomes
sunnier and hotter.

Jeopardized human health and comfort

UHIs contribute to higher daytime temperatures, reduced night time cooling, and higher air-
pollution levels. These, in turn, contribute to heat related illness such as general discomfort,
respiratory difficulties, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and non-fatal heat stroke and may even
result in deaths of vulnerable groups.
Heat islands can also exacerbate the impact of naturally occurring heat waves, which are
periods of abnormally hot, and often humid, weather. Sensitive populations, such as children,
older adults, and those with existing health conditions, are particularly at risk during these
events.

Compromised water quality

High temperatures of pavement and rooftop surfaces can heat up storm-water runoff, which
drains into storm sewers and raises water temperatures as it is released into streams, rivers,
ponds, and lakes. Water temperature affects all aspects of aquatic life, especially the
metabolism and reproduction of many aquatic species. Rapid temperature changes in aquatic
ecosystems resulting from warm storm water runoff can be particularly stressful, and even
fatal, to aquatic life. Studies have shown that urban streams are hotter on average than
streams in forested areas. Green infrastructure is one option that can be used to cool storm-
water runoff and improve water quality. It can include the use of downspout disconnections,
rain gardens, planter boxes, bio-swales, permeable pavements, green streets and alleys, green
parking, and green roofs, etc.

Altered microclimate in urban areas

The resultant of the differential thermal heating in urban areas is greater day-time storage;
low night-time release of solar energy; increased convective heat due to reduced latent heat
flux from impermeable surfaces. This anthropogenic modification of the natural environment
to the urban environment, affects thermal stratification of the air above the area, the local heat
balance, the hydrologic cycle as well as the micro and meso-scale circulation patterns. The
high aerodynamic roughness and surface heterogeneity of a city affect the speed of the wind
field, low level convergence, transport of suspended pollutants and increases vertical mixing
through changes in urban boundary layer (UBL); thus moisture is transported to higher levels.
Energy flux changes resulting from urbanization have the potential of modifying rainfall
patterns in terms of amount, spatial distribution and /or intensity.