Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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Numerical assessment of the urban green space scenarios on urban

heat island and thermal comfort level in Tehran Metropolis
Somayeh Arghavani a, Hossein Malakooti a, *, Abbas-Ali Ali Akbari Bidokhti b
a
Department of Marine and Atmospheric Science (non-Biologic), University of Hormozgan, Bandar Abbas, Iran
b
Department of Space Physics, Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The growing rate of urbanization and alterations in natural land-use/land-cover properties cause many
Received 21 June 2019 worldwide environmental issues such as Urban Heat Island (UHI), low Thermal Comfort Level (TCL) and
Received in revised form air pollution in megacities. Development of urban green spaces is one of the most proposed measures for
15 March 2020
mitigation of UHI and improvement of thermal comfort satisfaction which causes lower cooling energy
Accepted 16 March 2020
Available online 19 March 2020
consumption and indirectly improves the urban air quality. Therefore, the efficiency of realistic and
executable green scenarios in both surface and roof levels (surface vegetation, green roof, surface
^ as de
Handling editor. Cecilia Maria Villas Bo vegetation þ green roof) on early summertime UHI and TCL are evaluated and compared in Tehran
Almeida Metropolis, using coupled Weather Research and Forecasting model with Single Layer Urban Canopy
Model (WRF/SLUCM). Model predefined urban parameters (the urban density and vegetation fraction)
Keywords: are modified before the main simulations by data of remote-sensing methods which let us define surface
Urban green scenarios green spaces developmental scenarios without any change in the basic urban morphology. Results are
Green roof presented for three areas with different urban morphologies (Low and High-Intensity Residential (LR and
Urban heat island
HR) and Commercial and Industrial (C/I)). Three indexes (THI, ETI and RSI) are calculated for assessing
Thermal comfort
TCL variations. Generally, results show that environmental operations of selected scenarios are different
SENTINEL-2A
WRF/Noah/SLUCM over selected areas. In LR area, diurnal cooling (up to 0.86  C in green roof approach) and improvement
Tehran metropolis in thermal comfort condition are observed in all scenarios. On the other hand, in HR and C/I areas, the
daytime cooling (nighttime warming) effect up to 0.85  C (up to þ0.63  C) in the third scenario are
simulated. TCL alterations show similar deteriorating nightly effects in all scenarios in selected regions.
Averaged diurnal decrease in wind speed is another undesirable impact of green development scenarios
due to the enhanced surface roughness that can reduce urban natural heat and pollution ventilations.
Current results clarify that the adoption of efficient urban green spaces programs needs to consider
different environmental concerns. By comparison between roof level and surface greenery, it can be
concluded that the green roof approach with the least undesirable nightly effects is a more efficient
approach than surface vegetation development in high-density Tehran megacity.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction temperatures in cities compared to the surrounding rural areas

According to the United Nations report, while urban areas
occupy less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, almost 54% of the world’s
population lives in cities, and it is predicted to enhance to 66% by
2050 (UN, 2014). This rapid urbanization causes serious health
challenges such as urban heat island (UHI), deterioration of Ther-
mal Comfort Level (TCL) and poor air quality, especially in devel-
oping countries. UHI is related to the higher air and surface
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: malakooti@hormozgan.ac.ir (H. Malakooti).
(Landsberg, 1981; Santamouris, 2007), and TCL is basically defined
as the condition of the mind which declares satisfaction with the
thermal environment (ASHRAE Standard 55, 2013). Increased
temperature deteriorates air quality in cities by the enhanced en-
ergy demand for cooling and motivation for the temperature-
dependent atmospheric chemical reactions (Taha, 2008). There-
fore, rational and applicable mitigating strategies are required to be
developed in the urban environment (Rafael et al., 2016).
Among different proposed heat mitigation strategies, using Ur-
ban Green Spaces (UGS) and Urban Green Infrastructures (UGI)
with natural heat sinks function in urban areas is known as one of

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121183
0959-6526/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183
the most effective and commercial cooling and TCL improvement
strategies (Georgescu et al., 2014; Heusinkveld et al., 2014; Kong
et al., 2017; Norton et al., 2015; Santamouris, 2014; Sun et al.,
2017; Taha, 1997; Taleghani, 2018).
Keeley defined Green infrastructures as “vegetation, soils, and
bioengineered systems which provide ecological services such as
microclimate regulation, air quality improvements, habitat provi-
sion, storm water management and aesthetic amenities” (Keeley,
2011). Different kinds of UGS such as urban forests and parks,
green belts and green buffers, as well as UGI such as green vege-
tative roofs (Eco/Living roofs), green walls and green façades in
addition to beautify urban spaces, affect local micro-climate. In
cities, this includes more shading and evapotranspiration processes
and changing the surface albedo, emissivity, energy balance, sen-
sible and latent heat fluxes, as well as spatial and temporal patterns
of wind and temperature in the boundary layer (Akbari et al., 2001;
Gagliano et al., 2015; Oke et al., 1989; Perini and Magliocco, 2014).
Park Cool Island (PCI) effects were reported in many studies
under various weather conditions (Andrade and Vieira, 2007;
Konarska et al., 2015; Steeneveld et al., 2011). It was shown that
each one percent increase in urban greenness can reduce the UHI
intensity by 0.058  C (Heusinkveld et al., 2014). Cooling benefits of
urban green trees are highly localized and depend on many factors
such as the surrounding environment parameters like geometry,
building heights and density as well as surface materials, the po-
sition of the tree in relation to the buildings, the distance between
the tree and building as well as tree canopy height, and therefore,
vary spatially and temporally (Alavipanah et al., 2015; Jamei et al.,
2016; Yuan et al., 2017).
As a part of UGI, green roofs can mitigate UHI through the
reduction of sensible heat fluxes (in favor of the latent heat flux)
between the atmosphere and the artificial surfaces in an urban
environment and can indirectly reduce cooling energy consump-
tion. Sfakianaki et al. (2009) analyzed the cooling performance of a
green roof in Athens, Greece. Their findings demonstrate that on a
sunny spring day when the ambient temperature is close to 23  C,
the average surface temperature of the green roof is to about 6.5
and 9  C lower than that of grey or brown tiles, respectively
(Sfakianaki et al., 2009). The local climate, vegetation types and
water availability in the substrate and building height are impor-
tant factors in the cooling behavior of green roofs (Ali-Toudert and
Mayer, 2007; Lundholm and Williams, 2015; Lundholm, 2015;
MacIvor et al., 2016; Solcerova et al., 2017). In addition, Santamouris
(2014) reviewed simulation and experimental researches about the
efficiency of the white (or reflective) roof and green roof mitigating
technologies and concluded that green roofs cause the average air
temperature reduction between 0.3 and 3 K on a city scale
(Santamouris, 2014)
Considering cooling effects in different urban levels (street level
vs. roof level), simulations of the impacts of four heat mitigation
strategies (cool roofs, green roofs, cool pavements, increased sur-
face trees) on local meteorology and the TCL, using computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) model known as ENVI-met, in eastern Los
Angeles County, cleared that additional street-trees and cool
pavements reduced 1.5m air temperature, while cool and green
roofs mostly provided cooling at higher levels. They suggested that
adding street trees was the most effective strategy to improve TCL
at the pedestrian level (Taleghani et al., 2016). Other simulations of
multiple green-cooling scenarios using ENVI-met model also
proved that UGS have ameliorating impacts on UHI, micro-scale
effects of global warming and TCL (Declet-Barreto et al., 2013;
Evola et al., 2017; Middel et al., 2015; Salata et al., 2017; Taleghani
et al., 2014). A comparison between several resilience scenarios
including green roof and surface trees in Porto urban area also
showed that roof greenery is more affective that surface vegetation
in mitigation of summertime UHI (Carvalho et al., 2017).
Sharma et al. (2016) in their numerical simulation using WRF
model demonstrated that roof temperature in the daytime linearly
decreased with enhancing green roof fractions from ~1  C to ~3  C
for 25% and 100% green roof, respectively. Their findings also
proved that green and cool roofs lessened wind speeds and vertical
mixing, boundary layer height, and convective processes which
might cause air quality issues (Sharma et al., 2016). Another nu-
merical study with WRF model, compared cool roofs and UGS
deployment heat mitigation strategies and admitted that the green
vegetation was preferable in terms of mitigating the (nocturnal)
UHI intensity in Singapore by more than 1  C decrease in nighttime
temperatures and also would improve human’s physiological TCL
during early morning (Li and Norford, 2016). Numerical simulations
in the city of Melbourne also showed that the maximum roof sur-
face UHI was reduced during the day between 1  C and 3.8  C by
increasing green roof fraction from 30% to 90% and human thermal
comfort was also improved by up to 1.5  C and 5.7  C for pedestrian
and roof surface levels, respectively (Imran et al., 2018).
Recently, there is a special attention to multiple scenarios (green
roof, green wall, cool roof beside urban parks and forests) in
crowded urban areas due to lack of enough spaces to merely
expand surface vegetation and also different environmental effects
of these green strategies (UHI mitigation, improvement in air
quality and outdoor TCL) in different urban levels (street level vs.
roof level). Field studies indicate that combined green strategies
have noticeable cooling effects on urban air temperatures
(AbdElfattah AboElata, 2017; Akbari et al., 2001; Gaitani et al., 2011;
Ng et al., 2012; Rosenzweig et al., 2009; Sailor, 1995; Shahidan et al.,
2012; Susca et al., 2011).
In conclusion, due to the unique meteorological, climatic and
geographical characteristics of each urban area, as well as the UHI
severity, rate of anthropogenic heat release and water availability
for green spaces irrigation in cities, prediction of the effects of ur-
ban green strategies with optimal functionality has become
impossible. Evaluation of the urban green spaces performances
using numerical models simulations is known as an accepted and
usual approach for assessment and prediction of the impacts future
urban green space developing programs on UHI severity and TCL in
urban environments, as numerical models help to create a more
realistic way to study the physical process occurring in urban areas
(Rafael et al., 2016, 2019). In this study, we explore the effectiveness
of different urban green scenarios on the diurnal variability of UHI
and outdoor TCL in an early summertime period, for the first time,
in Tehran Metropolis, through high-resolution numerical simula-
tions using WRF model. Considering the ongoing green spaces
development approach in this megacity, outcomes of city-scale
researches like this will help policymakers to define and imple-
ment the most cost effective long-term green programs to increase
urban resilience standards.
This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 describes the study
area, details of green space scenarios selections, the WRF/Noah/
SLUCM set up and numerical experiments. Results of the model
validation are reported in section 3. Numerical simulation findings
are presented in section 4, and section 5 concludes the study re-
sults. Some limitations of the study and suggestions for future
studies are also presented in this section.
2. Methodology
2.1. Overview of the study area
Tehran Metropolis (TM), the capital of Iran and the first densely
populated city in the country, with about 700 km2 area and 22
municipal districts, is located in the northern part of the country
 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183
within the longitudes of 51 e51 400 E and the latitudes of 35 300
to 35 510 N (Fig. 4).
Four factors play important roles in the climate of TM: Alborz
Mountain range at the northern border of the city, Dasht-E-Kavir
desert in the south, westerly winds and large meridional and
zonal extent of the city. TM climate can be generally described as
mild in spring and autumn, hot and dry in summer, and cold and
rather wet in winter. The annual mean temperature changes be-
tween 15  C and 18  C. Due to height differences in the city, an
average of 3  C difference in air temperature is observed between
the northern and southern regions of Tehran (Pahl-Weber et al.,
2013). According to the complexity in TM urban morphology, cli-
matic situation, high population, irregular increase in energy con-
sumption, and anthropogenic heat coupled with global warming
and heat waves effects, 8.2 million inhabitants of this metropolis
suffer from high levels of UHI and low TCL in the summer. Statis-
tically, meaningful warming trend of the order 0.37  C/decade has
been seen, leading to 2.3  C rise over the 63-yr period from 1951 to
2013 which is more than triple of the rate of change in the global
average temperature, indicating that urbanization has had a
considerable warming effect on TM climate (Alizadeh-Choobari
et al., 2016). This megacity also suffers from a low level of local
wind speed which exacerbates UHI and air pollution issues
(Bidokhti et al., 2016; Malakooti and Bidokhti, 2014).
2.2. Outdoor thermal comfort assessment method
Human comfort is affected by various variables like tempera-
ture, humidity, wind speed, radiant temperature, clothing, meta-
bolic rate and personal activity (Havenith, 1999).
In this study, in order to evaluate the hourly variations in the
outdoor 2m TCL due to the implementation of urban green sce-
narios in TM, three physiological comfort indices are calculated
(Eludoyin, 2015; Morris et al., 2017):
THI ¼ 0:8  T þ 0:002  T  RH;
ETI ¼ T  0:4  ðT  10Þ  ð1  0:002  RHÞ;
RSI ¼ ð10:7 þ 0:74  ðT  35ÞÞ = ð44  0:0075  RH  VÞ;
 
^ T
V ¼ 6:11  10 7:5  ; (4)
237:7 þ T
where THI is “Temperature Humidity Index”, ETI is “Effective
Temperature Index”, RSI is “Relative Strain Index”, T is the air
temperature ( C), RH is the relative humidity (%) and V is the
saturation vapor pressure (hPa).
Comfort limits are defined according to the climate of the city
and personal comfort interests. Values below and above the com-
fort limits are termed as the cold and hot uncomfortable levels,
respectively. In this method, the effects of some meteorological
variables such as net solar radiation and wind speed, as well as the
personal expectations, on human TCL are not taken into account,
and it can be one of the shortcomings of our study.
It worth noting that Tehran dwellers suffer from a noticeable
lack of summertime thermal comfort especially in June and July
(Hejazi zadeh and Karbalaee, 2015). Estimated summertime ther-
mal comfort limits in this megacity are 21.5 Ce27  C (Rezaei Hariri
and Fayaz, 2001). It is also estimated that upper and lower
thresholds for relative humidity for two weather stations in Tehran
with different geographical situations (Table 4), Tehran-Shomal and
Geophysic (Fig. 1a) are 40.75-24.93% and 36.85e22.7%, respectively.
Relative values for temperature boundaries are 25.76-21.6  C and
3
25.52e21.42  C, respectively (Roshan et al., 2017).
2.3. Numerical experiments
2.3.1. Land use/Land cover modification of TM
Numerical simulation results are too sensitive to boundary
conditions and accurate representation of each component of land
use-land cover (LULC). Because of the rapid changes in LULC due to
the high rate of urbanization and climate change, characteristics of
LULC are not accurately incorporated in predefined data sources in
numerical models, especially for high-resolution simulations.
Improvement in the performance of the WRF model after LULC
correction is investigated in many studies, and these findings
indicate that LULC changes considerably altered regional and local
climates (Cao et al., 2015; Li et al., 2014) and fine grid numerical
model results are more precise after correction of Green Vegetation
Fraction (GVF) and other surface parameters (Ran et al., 2015;
Vahmani and Ban-Weiss, 2016).
In this research, for a better description of LULC characteristic of
the study area, land-use modification with special attention to a
more accurate extraction of vegetation fraction for TM is applied
before the basic simulations. For this purpose, a remote sensing
derived data set which is a common and accepted technique is
utilized. Because of free access and high/acceptable spatial resolu-
tion (30 m  30 m), many previous literatures used Landsat images
(Landsat 7 Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus
(ETMþ) (Zhao et al., 2016) and Landsat 8 OLI (Pal and Ziaul, 2017)
which are more common than other expensive high-resolution
images like Quick Bird (Chen et al., 2014), Worldview (Liu et al.,
2015) and IKONSO (Zoran et al., 2013).
In this study, the extraction of GVF data is done and compared
by two different methods:
1) Using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as an
indicator of vegetation cover from two free access satellite im-
(1) ages (Landsat8 OLI (with 30 m  30 m spatial resolution) and
SENTINEl-2A (10 m  10 m spatial resolution)):
(2)
NIR  Red Band8  band4
NDVISentinel2A ¼ ¼ (5)
NIR þ Red Band8 þ Band4
(3)
NIR  Red Band5  band4
NDVILandsat8 ¼ ¼ (6)
NIR þ Red Band5 þ Band4
NDVI  NDVI0
GVFpixel ¼ (7)
NDVI∞  NDVI0
(for Nonurban grid cells, (Gutman and Ignatov, 1998)
GVFpixel
GVFpervious ¼ (8)
1  f urban
(for Modified for urban grid cells, (Vahmani and Ban-Weiss, 2016)
where NIR and Red are near-infrared and red wavelengths.
NDVI∞ andNDVI0 are constant maximum and minimum calculated
NDVI values, and f urban is the urban fraction for each grid point.
2) Extraction of GVF information from Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 OLI
imagery (composite bands for Natural Color: Red (band 4),
Green (band 3), Blue (band 2)), using supervised classification
method in ArcGIS 10.3 software.
All free satellite images used in this study are available at
(https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/).
To use more realistic land use information in numerical
4 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183
Fig. 1. (a) 22 regions of TM and geographical situations of synoptic weather stations; (b) Example of extraction of land use information from SENTINEl-2A satellite images for
region1 in ArcGIS software by the supervised classification method.
simulations, Urban Development and Urban Fraction for each grid
cell is also modified. Besides, for better identification of urban areas
data, especially green spaces in the city, LULC maps for 22 sub-
regions of TM are prepared, separately (Figs. 1 and 2). Atmo-
spheric and radiometric corrections as the pre-processing steps in
the processing of satellite images for the image classification and
preparation of LULC maps are done by ENVI software.
Figs. 1 and 2 show the results of vegetation and urban fraction
extraction for region1 (as an example) and 22 regions of TM,
respectively. It is obvious that NDVI method shows a more accurate
distribution of green vegetative areas over TM than those of other
methods.
These findings are mapped to the WRF model predefined out of
date in the 4th domain before basic simulations (Fig. 3). From this
figure, it is obvious that urban fractions for urban grids are between
90 and 95% in WRF predefined dataset. Modification of these un-
realistic fractions let us add 20% surface vegetation to urban grids in
the first and third scenarios without any change in the urban
morphology (section 2.4).
2.3.2. Selection of the time-period for simulations
The highest air temperatures occur in July (more than 30  C)
which provides a good basis for studying urban heat island and
thermal comfort in Tehran Metropolis. In addition, deciduous trees
are the dominant plant types of the region (Bahman poor and
Salajeghe, 2012; Vahdati et al., 2006) and high summertime
values of leaf area index (LAI) is desirable for the purpose of the
current study.
The biological function of vegetation highly depends on air
temperature. The opposition to the transport of quantities such as
water vapor and carbon dioxide to or from the stomata (pores) on
the leaves of plants is named stomatal resistance. According to
Wesely scheme, stomatal resistance (Rs ) is defined as (Wesely,
1989):
  
1 400 DH2 o
Rs ¼ rs 1 þ (9)
½200ðG þ 0:1Þ 2 Ts ð40  Ts Þ Dx
where rs is minimum stomatal resistance, G is solar radiation (W/
m2), and Ts is the near surface air temperature ( C). DH2 o and Dx are
 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183 5

Fig. 2. (a) Comparison of GVF and Building Fractions extracted data (region1) from Landsat-8 and SENTINEl-2A satellites (supervised classification method in ArcGIS software
relative to GVF computed from NDVI method); (b) Final results (urban fraction vs. GVF) for 22 regions of TM.

Fig. 3. WRF predefined vs. Modified LULC in the 4th domain; Tehran Boundary is also marked.

the molecular diffusivities for water vapor and a specific gas x.
In temperatures higher than 40  C and lower than 0  C, plant
leaves show maximum stomatal resistance and decrease or stop
evapotranspiration, while minimum values occur in about 20  C. In
conclusion, month June with lower mean air temperature (~27  C)
is selected to show the effects of the biological function of vege-
tation on simulated relative humidity and air temperature more
accurately. Green space developmental scenarios are costly and
long-term approaches and they cannot be easily omitted or
replaced from urban areas, therefore we try to investigate their
regular behavior and do not focus on a special high-temperature
episode such as heat waves. Another important factor was to
choose days with a cloudless condition, calm wind and without
precipitation. Finally, two weeks typical early summer days (15th to
29th of June 2016) were selected for simulations. All simulations
initiate at 00:00 UTC June 15 and end at 00:00 UTC June 30. Data for
the first day which is the model spin-up time are not included in
our analyses.
6 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183

Table 1
Single-layer urban canopy model (SLUCM) parameters.

Low density residential High density residential Commercial/Industrial

a
FRC_URB -Fraction (modified) 0.5 0.9 (0.75) 0.95 (0.85)
Roof level (building height) [m] 5.0 7.0 10.0
Anthropogenic heat [W/m2] 20.0 50.0 90.0
Anthropogenic latent heat [W/m2] 20.0 25.0 40.0
Surface albedo of roof [fraction] 0.2 0.2 0.2
b
IRI_SCHEME ¼ 1
c
DDZR (4 layers): 0.05, 0.05, 0.05, 0.05 [m]
d
GROPTION ¼ 1 (for GS2 and GS3)
e
FGR¼ 0.30 (for GS2 and GS3)
f
DZGR: 1) Top Soil layer(0.05) 2) Soil layer (0.10) 3) Growing Medium layer (0.15) 4) concrete roof (0.20)[m]
a
Fraction of the urban landscape which does not have natural vegetation.
b
Urban irrigation scheme, for vegetation in urban area and green roof.
c
Thickness of each roof layer.
d
Green roof option.
e
Surface fraction of green roof over urban rooftop and.
f
Thickness of each layer on green roof.

2.3.3. WRF simulations study are presented in Table 1.

Fine-grid numerical simulations were performed using the
meso-scale non-hydrostatic compressible Weather Research and
Forecasting (WRF) model version 3.8 (Skamarock and Klemp, 2008)
coupled with Single Layer Urban Canopy Models (Kusaka and
Kimura, 2004; Kusaka et al., 2001) and Noah Land Surface Model
(Chen and Dudhia, 2001). This model is developed by the National
Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and National Center for
Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and is used in this research to
simulate the impact of LULC changes and green scenarios (section
2.4) on the UHI phenomenon.
Since the urban morphology and other urbanized characteristics
are not fully considered in the basic WRF model, for city-scale
studies like this, it can be coupled with urban canopy models.
The single layer urban canopy model (SLUCM) used here consists of
important urban canopy characteristics such as multiple reflections
in urban canyons, anthropogenic, latent and sensible heat emis-
sions, shading effect of vegetation, turbulence effects around urban
obstacles such as buildings and vegetation and blocking effect of
air-flow on buildings and vegetation. It is also possible to define
green roof parameterizations in this canopy model (Chen et al.,
2011; Yang and Wang, 2014; Yang et al., 2015). Details of the
most important WRF predefined LANDUSE.TBL settings used in this
Fig. 4 shows the extent of four domains. The coarse domain has
70  70 grid points with a horizontal resolution of 27 km covering
the whole country and the 4th domain has 147  147 grid points of
a high horizontal resolution of 1 km covering the TM region. Details
of model configuration, the number of grid points and horizontal
and vertical spacing of each domain are provided in Table 2. Both
the initial and the boundary conditions are from the six-hourly
National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) global fore-
cast system (GFS) reanalysis data (ftp://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov/GFS/
nomads) on a 1  1 grid at 30 vertical pressure levels.
Six numerical experiments are performed by WRF model in the
present work (Table 3). The first three experiments, named Base, C1
and C2, are implemented to investigate the performance of the
WRF model under different land-use datasets and boundary layer
schemes. Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) thermo-dynamical
properties considerably affect the accuracy of the numerical sim-
ulations results. Therefore, parameterization schemes in numerical
models need to be evaluated for each study area. It is not the main
purpose of the current study to evaluate the different PBL schemes
of WRF model for Tehran area. However, since we study a typical
boundary layer phenomenon, at least two more frequently used
boundary layer schemes, Mellor-Yamada-Janjic (MYJ) local scheme

Fig.4. left: Extent of four defined domains with horizontal resolutions of 27, 9, 3 and 1 km; right: the geographical location of Tehran in the 4th domain.
 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183 7

Table 2
Model Configuration.

Period 2016-06-15_00:00 to 2016-06-29_00:00

Microphysics WRF Single-Moment 6-class scheme (Hong and Lim, 2006)

Radiation Long Wave: RRTM (Mlawer et al., 1997)
Short Wave:Dudhia (Dudhia, 1989)
Planetary Boundary Layer Mellor-Yamada-Janjic scheme (Janjic, 1994)
Yonsei University scheme (Hong et al., 2006)
Land Surface Model Noah Land Surface Model
Surface Layer Eta similarity (Janjic, 2002)
Urban Physics Single-Layer Urban Canopy Model (SLUCM)
Cumulus Parameterization Kain-Fritsch scheme only for domain 1 (Kain, 2004)
Horizontal spacing (grid points) d01: 27 km (70  70), d02: 9 km (109  109)
d03:3 km (118  118), d04:1 km (149  149)
Vertical spacing 30 full sigma levels/Model top level: 50 mb
Time Step d01: 180s, d02: 60s, d03: 20s, d04: 6s
Objective Analysis Data GFS
Observation Data Iran Meteorological Organization/synoptic stations in Tehran

Table 3
Numerical experiments.

Experiments Land Use Comment

Base Predefined USGS SLUCM þ MYJ Planetary Boundary Layer Scheme

Control 1(C1)* Modified LULC SLUCM þ MYJ Planetary Boundary Layer Scheme
Control 2(C2) Modified LULC SLUCM þ YSU Planetary Boundary Layer Scheme
Green Scenario 1 (GS1) Modified LULC Increase of vegetation fraction by 20 percent
Green Scenario 2 (GS2) Modified LULC Development of extensive green roof by 30 percent
Green Scenario 3 (GS3) Modified LULC Multiple Scenario (GS1þGS2)

Note: *Selected as the control case for comparative analyses.

(Janjic, 1994) and the Yonsei University (YSU) nonlocal scheme
(Hong and Lim, 2006), are evaluated before the main simulations.
While only the impacts of the adjacent layers are considered by the
local schemes, nonlocal schemes use multiple vertical layers and
consider both the small and large eddies in PBL turbulent flows.
In the base simulation, SLUCM parameterization of WRF/Noah
modeling system is used with the 24-class USGS land cover dataset.
During the C1 and C2 simulations, modified LULC data (section
2.3.1) are used for domain 4 but with different boundary layer
schemes. It must be remarked that for 3 outer domains, 24-class
USGS land cover data are used in all simulations. Three other
simulations named as GS1, GS2 and GS3 (section 2.4) are performed
to re-simulate meteorological variables to investigate the effects of
the implementation of defined UGS/UGI scenarios on UHI and
outdoor TCL.

Fig. 5. (a) Thermal Infrared remote sensed Landsat8 image (20 June 2016) and computed (b) daytime LST; (c) NDVI for Tehran Metropolis.
8 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183

Fig. 6. Tehran Metropolis district including non-uniform distribution of green spaces such as parks and gardens. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend,
the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

2.4. Urban green space scenarios

Adoption of proper and realistic green scenarios to mitigate UHI

and improve outdoor TCL in a city can be a challenging process, as
the green strategies should be rational, applicable and commercial
with optimal functionality. In this study three scenarios are defined
as bellow (Table 3):

1) Fig. 5 shows the Land Surface Temperature (LST) and NDVI

(Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) for 20 June 2016
(~10:30 a.m. local time) of TM is derived from thermal infrared
remote sensed landsat8 images (Avdan and Jovanovska, 2016;
Barsi et al., 2014). While green spaces with the highest NDVI
values exhibit the lowest LST, commercial and industrial lands
and densely residential areas have the highest LST values.
Considering TM non-uniform distribution of green spaces such
as parks and gardens (Fig. 6), daytime vegetative space Cool
Island effect is meaningful. Considering this cooling effect up to
3  C, specifically in the commercial and crowded south and
central parts of the city, it can be concluded that extension of
surface green space can be a reasonable ameliorating measure
for daytime surface UHI in TM. Because of the high density of
urban structures in TM and lack of free spaces, the development
of green spaces such as parks and gardens by more than 20
percent for each urban grids will hardly be possible in reality. In
addition, according to the predefined WRF data set (Table 1), Fig. 7. Example of the hourly comparison of averaged (16e30 June 2016) simulated
meteorological variables (2m air temperature and 2m relative humidity) with obser-
urban fractions for HR and C/I are 90% and 95%, respectively. vation data in “Tehran Shomal” station. Shaded areas are local night time.

Table 4
Characteristics of five synoptic weather stations over Tehran.

Station Land Use Category GVF (June 2016) Geographical coordinates Elevation (m) from sea level

Tehran Shomal (Aghdasiyeh) - S1* low intensity (R1) High 51290 E,35480 N 1548.2
Tehran Geophysic e S2* high intensity (R2) Low 51230 E,35450 N 1415.6
Mehrabad Airport - S3* Industrial/commercial (R9) Very Low 51190 E,35410 N 1190.8
Chitgar low intensity (R22) Low 51100 E,35440 N 1305.2
Doshan Tappeh high intensity (R13) Low 51200 E,35420 N 1209.2

Note: *Selected stations for model validation.

 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183 9

Table 5
Comparison of simulated meteorological variables with observation data using MBE, MBA, RMSE, and R.

Station Base Control 1 Control 2

MBE MAE RMSE R MBE MAE RMSE R MBE MAE RMSE R

T2 
(C) S1 1.54 2.03 2.25 0.93 0.54 1.67 1.92 0.94 1.09 1.86 2.09 0.92
S2 2.9 2.9 3.16 0.93 1.3 1.7 1.95 0.98 1.97 2.14 2.45 0.98
S3 2.36 2.68 3.13 0.92 0.97 2.05 2.65 0.91 1.47 2.36 2.81 0.88
Average 2.26 2.53 2.84 0.92 0.93 1.80 2.17 0.94 1.51 2.12 2.45 0.92
RH2 (%) S1 2.27 3.12 4.25 0.49 1.19 4.08 5.68 0.85 1.16 4.45 5.77 0.52
S2 3.33 3.85 4.85 0.46 1.06 4.4 6.14 0.84 3.41 5.45 6.9 0.48
S3 0.87 5.90 7.03 0.39 1.48 7.70 10.21 0.80 0.40 8.38 10.00 0.40
Average 2.15 4.29 5.37 0.44 0.53 5.39 7.34 0.83 1.65 6.1 7.55 0.46
10mWind Speed (m/s) S1 0.39 1.05 1.22 0.3 0.27 1.14 1.36 0.5 0.43 1.18 1.47 0.25
S2 1.26 1.62 1.89 0.67 0.78 1.10 1.33 0.34 1.20 1.39 1.77 0.57
S3 0.96 1.54 1.93 0.13 0.66 1.42 1.98 0.10 1.60 2.36 2.84 0.21
Average 0.87 1.40 1.68 0.36 0.57 1.22 1.55 0.31 1.07 1.64 2.02 0.34

Since practically it is not possible to add surface vegetation to
urban grids more than 5%, these fractions are modified as
described in Section 2.3.1. Therefore, in the first scenario named
GS1, surface UGS fraction enhanced by 20 percent for each urban
grid. Additional UGS to the urban area is assumed as Mixed
Forests Land Use Category with a uniform distribution across
each grid. The albedo, height, emissivity and LAI properties of
this class of surface land cover which are defined in WRF pre-
defined VEGPARM.TBL table are 0.17e0.25, 10e18 m, 0.93 to
0.97, and 2.8 to 5.50, respectively.
2) For high-density megacities, green roof is a practical and
beneficial alternation for surface vegetation (Vijayaraghavan,
2016). A field study in July 2016 clears that using green roof
for TM causes an average surface temperature reduction up to
3.7  C on the rooftop. The green roof surface temperature varied
from 23  C to 36  C depending on the type of vegetation
(Moghbel and Salim, 2017). Extensive green roof due to fewer
costs of construction and retention is a more economically
attractive and cost-effective approach in comparison to the
intensive green roof. Since extensive roof vegetation types have
low water requirement (Besir and Cuce, 2018), for cities which

Fig. 8. (a) Three selected regions with different urban morphology (LR: Low Intensity Residential, HR: High Intensity Residential and C/I: Commercial and Industrial); (b) Diurnal
T2m, TSK and RH2m in selected areas, simulated in the Control case, for July 2016.
10 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183

suffer from the shortage of water storages such as TM, it seems
that extensive green roofs are a more applicable option for
public usage. Therefore, in the second scenario named GS2, the
extensive green roof is developed by 30 percent (There is no
limitation in adding green roof by more than 30 percent in WRF
model set-up settings) which seems a practical and feasible
approach in Tehran megacity. In WRF-UCM predefined LAND-
USE.TBL, green roof option settings are considered (Table 1), and
in this study, green roof refers to extensive type (Yang et al.,
2015). Clearly, Buildings Height determines the environmental
behavior of green roofs on the pedestrian level. In this study, we
used WRF-SLUCM predefined building heights (LR (5.0 m), HR
(7.5), C/I (10.0 m)).
3) The third scenario (GS3) is the integration of the GS1 and GS2
scenarios.
3. MODEL validation
Hourly ground-based observations of meteorological data are
available at five synoptic weather stations in TM (Fig. 3a). Three
stations with different land-use categories, elevations from sea
level and mean summertime air temperatures are selected for
model validation (Table 4). Diurnal 2m air temperature (T2), 2m
relative humidity (RH2) and 10m wind speed (W10m) records at
these stations have been obtained from the Meteorological Orga-
nization of Iran (http://www.irimo.ir/irimo), and are compared
with numerical results (Fig. 7).
Model validation is done by comparing calculated mean bias
error (MBE), mean absolute error (MAE), the root mean square
error (RMSE) and Pearson correlation coefficient (R) estimations of
the meteorological variables and final results are reported in
Table 5.
Considering the mosaic approach in the WRF model, new land-
use data improve the numerical results in both control runs (C1 and
C2) relative to the base case. The comparison between two control
simulations also shows that the MYJ scheme presents better
agreement with observations in TM area (for T2m and RH2m).
Therefore, this model configuration is selected for scenario execu-
tions, and its simulated values are selected as the controlling base
case for conducting the comparative analyses between proposed
green scenarios.
4. Results
Three regions with equal area of 16 km2 (Fig. 8a) with different
urban categories (LR: Low Intensity Residential, HR: High Intensity

Fig. 9a. Diurnal alterations of 2m air temperature for three defined green scenarios relative to the control case in Low residential (LR), High residential (HR) and Commercial/
Industrial (C/I) regions. Dashed line presents simulated values in the control case; Local daytime (for July 2016) is also marked. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this
figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183
Residential and C/I: Commercial and Industrial) and vegetation
fraction (43%, 11% and 2%; respectively) in Tehran region are
selected for assessing variations in simulated meteorological vari-
ables, and calculated environmental TCL indexes caused by
execution of defined urban green scenario. Fig. 8b shows simulated
diurnal T2m (2 m air temperature), RH2m (2 m relative humidity)
and TSK (surface skin temperature) in the control case for selected
areas which emphasizes different local meteorology situations
across this megacity.
4.1. Urban heat island
Near-surface energy equation in the urban environment is
defined as (Arya, 2001):
QR þ QA ¼ QH þ QE þ DQS þ DQAd
Where QR and QA are net solar radiation and anthropogenic heat
terms (W/m2). The first two terms on the right side are sensible and
latent heat fluxes (W/m2). DQS and DQAd are the storage heat term
and heat from the advection process (W/m2) respectively.
Fig. 9b. Same as Fig.9a but for surface skin temperature (TSK).
11
Both vegetative surface and roof level green spaces, generally,
reduce the daytime UHI by reducing sensible heat flux, but the
mechanism is somewhat different. Green roofs (extensive green
roof which is used in this study) reduce sensible heat flux by
increasing latent heat flux via evapotranspiration. Green roofs also
reduce daytime storage heat and therefore less heat is released
back to the atmosphere (Imran et al., 2018). In addition, vegetation
higher albedo (0.7e0.85) in comparison to manmade material such
as bitumen and concrete (0.1e0.2) cause the more solar radiation
reflection (Santamouris, 2014; Sharma et al., 2016).
On the other hand, surface vegetation (trees) by shading and
inhabitation of solar radiation entrance in the city canyon, as well
as evapotranspiration process and slightly higher albedo, lead to
cooler cities (Akbari et al., 2001; Georgescu et al., 2014; Taha, 1997).
Simulated averaged alterations (16th to 29th June 2016) in T2m,
RH2m, TSK and 10m wind speed relative to the control case are
(10) presented in Fig. 9. Fig. 10 shows changes in surface energy fluxes
(Equation (A1)) relative to the control case. Summary of three green
scenario simulations findings including maximum values and
diurnal averages for three aforementioned areas of TM are reported
in Table 6.
12 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183
In LR area, numerical results suggest that GS2 has a perceptible
cooling performance with a diurnal average of 0.37  C in com-
parison with GS1 (0.11  C) and GS3 (0.20  C). The maximum
daytime cooling effect is 0.86  C for this scenario which is
observed at 1:00 p.m. (local time). Results also display a net
reduction of nighttime T2m up to 0.35  C in GS1 relative
to 0.32  C and 0.33  C for GS2 and GS3 scenarios, respectively.
Peak cooling values (0.33  C) occurred at 4:00 am (local time)
with the lowest T2m (21.67  C) for GS3, and in the early night about
20:00 p.m. (local time) for GS1 (0.35  C).
The highest average diurnal variation (0.81  C) and maximum
daytime cooling impact (2.5  C) for TSK are simulated for GS2. All
scenarios show warming impacts for nighttime TSK.
For both HR and C/I areas, GS3 results in diurnal average cooling
impacts by 0.24  C and 0.36  C, respectively. However, this
scenario provides the maximum nighttime warming effects in
these regions (þ0.63  C and þ0.45  C). Daytime cooling effects up
to 2.39  C and 2.54  C for these areas are also documented for
TSK in GS3. Similar to LR, warming nighttime impacts are more
intense.
Fig. 9c. Same as Fig.9a but for 2m relative humidity.
Current simulation results show that, in general, GS1 cooling
impact is less intense than two other scenarios. A possible expla-
nation is that increasing the surface tree fraction through changing
the local wind speed and wind direction causes less heat horizontal
advection and ventilation. On the other hand, less near-surface air
temperature drives less turbulence and air vertical transfer which
traps the released anthropogenic heat in the urban canopy
(Grundstro €m and Pleijel, 2014).
Additionally, the nighttime warming effect which is observed in
HR and C/I areas proves that more tree canopies percentage over
these areas cause a reduction of the sky view factor which traps
more re-emitted heat for urban materials (Akbari et al., 2001; Qiao
et al., 2013). This issue is more serious in high crowded areas with
more anthropogenic heat release (from WRF model predefined
URBPARAM.TBL: 20 W/m2 in LR area relative to 50 W/m2 in HR
area).
The minimum nighttime warming effect (þ0.26  C and þ0.29  C
for HR and C/I, respectively) is observed in the green roof scenario.
Comparison of the cooling performance of green roof over three
urban categories proves that lower buildings height in LR region
 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183
(5m in comparison to 7m and 10m in HR and C/I areas, respectively)
cause more meaningful near-surface air temperature reduction in
this region than those for other two regions. Meanwhile, remark-
able observed daytime cooling in two other regions demonstrates
that the high percentage of green roofs in high-intensity build-up
areas can somewhat compensate for the building height factor.
These results affirm that ambient temperatures in city areas are
clearly affected by building roof temperatures.
Another interesting finding is that cooling daytime patterns for
all scenarios are continued approximately by the same magnitude
after sunset in HR and, specifically, in C/I area, but warming
nighttime effect appears after midnight (~00:00 a.m. local time).
In comparison with the control case, vegetative surfaces,
whether surface green spaces or roof level vegetation structures,
increase the Latent Heat fluxes (LH) and, on the other hand, reduce
Upward Heat Flux (HFX) and Ground Heat Flux (GRDFLX), but with
different diurnal magnitudes (Fig. 10). The Shading effect of trees
and their higher albedo in comparison to impervious urban areas,
are rational reasons. Less incoming daytime solar radiation causes
Fig. 9d. Same as Fig.9a but for wind speed.
13
less HFX (between 90 W/m2 and -100W/m2) and GRDFLX (~30W/
m2) which bring lower daytime surface skin temperatures for all
three scenarios in three areas, as more fraction of incoming radia-
tion has devoted to the LH flux.
Due to higher evapotranspiration beside summertime diurnal
irrigation of green spaces and green roofs in urban areas, daytime
LH enhances considerably. Maximum increased values are
observed in GS3 (~þ50W/m2) for three areas due to the combined
effect of increasing surface vegetation and green roof percentage.
Generally, the assessment of average diurnal variations in T2m
and TSK over three areas after implementation of selected scenarios
demonstrates the positive cooling effects of these scenarios. How-
ever, GS2 probably brings the greatest overall benefits in terms of
diurnal UHI mitigation since it provides a higher (lower) level of
cooling (warming) in the built-up environment.
4.2. Relative humidity
As mentioned in section 2.2, relative humidity is one of the most
14 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183

influential factors on human thermal comfort. According to
Fig. 9cand Table 6, it is obvious that average diurnal near-surface
relative humidity is increased in all areas for three scenarios
which ameliorates Tehran thermal discomfort level in hot and dry
summer days. Comparison of different scenarios shows that
maximum daytime values are observed in GS2 in LR area (þ2.92%),
and in GS3 for HR and C/I areas (þ2.89% and þ4.02%). Since
evapotranspiration from vegetated areas stops in the absence of
solar radiation, nighttime variations in relative humidity are due to
nighttime irrigation and water stored evaporation processes.
Wind speed has a significant effect on the near-surface relative
humidity. Fig. 9d displays a reduction in wind speed values in all
scenarios, except somewhat increasing values in C/I region by GS2.
Lower wind speed causes higher values of relative humidity near
the surface. Since relative humidity is adversely dependent on air
temperature, higher air temperature causes less relative humidity
at night. In addition, less daily heat storage (discussed in section
4.1) results in less nighttime evaporation. It should be noted that
the advection of less humid air from rural areas in dry summer days
to the city center due to changes in wind field over the city has a
remarkable impact on nighttime observed reduction in RH2m.
4.3. Out-door thermal comfort level
In order to investigate the impacts of green scenarios on thermal
comfort level, hourly computed TCL indexes (section 2.2) are pre-
sented in Fig. 11. Summary of maximum and diurnal averaged
values are shown in Table 6. As expected, despite non-uniform
diurnal patterns and varying magnitudes, mean values for all sce-
narios prove the improvement in urban 2 m thermal comfort level
over the city. In LR area, the maximum average ameliorating effect
is observed through GS2 simulation (THI: -0.26  C, ETI: -0.22  C,
RSI: -0.007). It worth noting that all scenarios improve nighttime
thermal comfort in this area.
Overall averaged impacts on diurnal 2m TCL indexes in HR and
C/I areas are positive, but the findings indicate deterioration of
nighttime TCL. GS3 causes higher negative effects in both areas. The
magnitudes of subtractive daytime values for THI and ETI are
noticeably more than the increased nighttime values in GS2 and
GS3 scenarios as compared to GS1 which provides higher nighttime
values. These results acknowledge our previous findings that just
increasing the percentage of surface vegetation in the urban envi-
ronment cannot mitigate nightly UHI effects especially, in high-
intensity residential areas.
Less increase in simulated nighttime values in green roof

Table 6
Summary of three green scenarios simulations findings for LR, HR and C/I areas.

Simulations Findings

Low Residential High Residential Industrial/Commercial

GS1 GS2 GS3 GS1 GS2 GS3 GS1 GS2 GS3

T2m Difference 
(C) Maximum 0.36 0.86 0.36 0.20 0.68 0.85 0.31 0.74 0.74
(-0.35) (-0.32) (-0.33) (þ0.33) (þ0.26) (þ0.63) (þ0.3) (þ0.29) (þ0.45)
Average 0.11 0.37 0.20 0.05 0.2 0.24 0.06 0.31 0.36
RH2m Difference (%) Maximum þ1.36 þ2.92 þ3.3 þ1.04 þ2.68 þ2.89 þ1.34 þ2.87 þ4.02
e e (-1.7) (-1.43) (-0.95) (-1.45) (þ3.16) (-1.67) (-1.80)
Average þ0.44 þ0.99 0.01 þ0.04 þ0.65 þ0.8 þ0.47 þ0.89 þ1.43
10m Wind Speed Maximum 2.57 2.95 2.68 1.84 1.9 2.16 2.1 4.31 2.49
Difference (m/s) (-1.96) (-0.44) (-3.23) (-1.28) (-0.5) (-1.14) e (þ3.14) (þ0.59)
Average 0.43 0.5 1.27 0.4 0.41 0.45 0.22 0.01 0.38
TSK Difference 
(C) Maximum 0.79 2.05 0.92 0.43 1.96 2.39 0.45 2.46 2.54
(þ1.28) (þ0.77) (þ1.64) (þ1.15) (þ1.36) (þ1.65) (þ0.97) (þ1.40) (þ1.32)
Average 0.0 0.81 0.03 þ0.04 0.6 0.82 0.11 0.81 0.86
LH Difference(w/m2) Maximum þ10.71 þ42.83 þ41.44 þ8.54 þ36.38 þ46.00 þ7.2 þ51.62 þ52.84
Average þ1.54 þ11.21 þ12.59 þ2.16 þ10.89 þ11.89 þ0.80 þ14.74 þ16.17
HFX Difference(w/m2) Maximum 17.69 83.60 87.97 21.80 82.88 77.62 24.42 93.96 103.82
Average 3.15 23.42 21.97 3.13 23.59 22.72 2.87 25.47 25.17
GRDFLX Difference(w/m2) Maximum 20.62 25.10 28.02 32.19 29.10 23.43 20.35 22.51 22.10
Average 3.23 12.00 10.70 3.17 11.88 10.52 2.17 10.41 11.0
THI Difference 
(C) Maximum 0.27 0.64 0.42 0.1 0.38 0.67 0.12 0.5 0.52
(-0.27) (-0.28) (-0.31) (þ0.28) (þ0.27) (þ0.37) (þ0.26) (þ0.25) (þ0.36)
Average 0.08 0.26 0.18 0.0059 0.083 0.194 0.027 0.21 0.22
ETI Difference 
(C) Maximum 0.2 0.5 0.24 0.1 0.37 0.5 0.15 0.42 0.42
(-0.2) (-0.2) (-0.2) (þ0.24) (þ0.22) (þ0.28) (þ0.18) (þ0.18) (þ0.27)
Average 0.07 0.22 0.13 0.02 0.1 0.15 0.032 0.185 0.2
RSI Difference Maximum 0.007 0.01 0.008 0.003 0.011 0.014 0.004 0.01 0.01
(-0.007) (0.007) (-0.006) (þ0.007) (þ0.006) (þ0.008) (þ0.005) (þ0.005) (þ0.008)
Average 0.002 0.007 0.003 0.001 0.003 0.003 0.001 0.005 0.006

Note: Maximum simulated values and diurnal averages are presented (Nighttime values are in parenthesis).
 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183 15

Fig. 10a. Diurnal alterations of sensible heat flux (HFX) for three defined green scenarios relative to the control case in Low residential (LR), High residential (HR) and Commercial/
Industrial (C/I) regions. Dashed lines are simulated values in the control case. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web
version of this article.)

simulation also indicates that, from improving the urban TCL point
of view, this measure is more reliable than surface vegetation.
5. Conclusion
This study is the first step in evaluating the effects of various
green scenarios on summertime UHI and TCL in Tehran Metropolis,
through high-resolution numerical simulations. In the first part, it
is proved that employing modified surface properties (vegetation
and urban fractions) and the selection of the proper boundary layer
parameterization, improve the performance of the numerical
model. In the second part, three realistic green scenarios named as
GS1 (increased surface vegetation fraction by 20%), GS2 (develop-
ment of extensive green roof for urban grids by 30 percent) and GS3
(GS1þGS2) are conducted, and alterations between the control case
and selected scenarios findings are compared. The main results of
this study are:
1. Alterations in UGS/UGI patterns over TM, change surface energy
balance, reduces average diurnal summer temperatures and
improve daytime outdoor thermal comfort. Meanwhile, night-
time and daytime effects are not uniform over the areas with
different urban categories. In LR area, diurnal cooling effects in
all scenarios are simulated, while in HR and C/I areas, daytime
cooling (nighttime warming) is predicted. Surface vegetation
drives the least diurnal averaged cooling effects over the city in
comparison to the green roof approach and, on the other hand,
its warming nighttime impact is more significant than the green
roof.
2. Considering the overall advantages and disadvantages of
different scenarios, we suggest that for low-intensity areas over
TM, with lower buildings height, green roof would be the most
effective and moderating approach. In high intensity and com-
mercial/industrial areas, more demanded daytime cooling per-
formance and improvement in TCL are observed in the third
16 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183
Fig. 10b. Same as Fig.10a but for ground heat flux (GRDFLX).
scenario (surface vegetation þ green roof). Meanwhile, higher
simulated warming values at night indicate worsening night-
time UHI which is one of the most challenging problems in
crowded areas of TM. Therefore, it can be concluded that green
roof approach can be a beneficial and applicable alternative
ameliorating approach in these areas.
3. Another important factor is the observed wind speed reduction
in green scenarios which may cause a higher level of surface air
pollution in these areas by changing natural dispersion and
ventilation processes over the city which is frequently discussed
and proved in similar studies (Abhijith et al., 2017; Giometto
et al., 2017; Vos et al., 2013).
4. Present findings emphasize that the selection of proper green
scenarios and adaptation strategies depends on urban envi-
ronmental priorities. For megacities like Tehran which suffers
from low-speed local winds and high level of air pollutants,
cooling performances of green scenarios may not offset their
unwanted side-effects on air quality. Results authenticate that
the design of green spaces in urban canopies, specifically in
crowded and populated sections, should provide daytime
shading and the possibility of nighttime heat and pollution
escape, simultaneously.
5. Outcomes also emphasize that due to intricate and somewhat
unknown feedbacks between urban structures and meteoro-
logical variables, we cannot generalize local findings to other
cities that clarifies the necessity of more fine-scale researches in
this field.
Finally, authors admit that fine-scale field studies are needed to
investigate the accuracy of simulation results relative to real cool-
ing effects of UGS and UGI over Tehran, as numerical models cannot
comprise various features of the urban structures. For example,
using a meso-scale numerical model is one of the limitations in our
study since the finest grid in WRF model is 1 km  1 km which
hardly captures the cooling effects of small green areas as parks,
single trees and near road trees. Additional studies are needed to
investigate and compare the effectiveness of the green mitigation
strategies for other seasons.
 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183 17

Fig. 10c. Same as Fig.10a but for latent heat flux (LH).

Fig. 11. Diurnal alterations of thermal comfort indexes: 2m THI (a, b, c), 2m ETI (d, e, f) and 2m RSI (g, h, i) for three defined green scenarios relative to the control case in Low
residential (LR, left column), High residential (HR, middle column) and Commercial/Industrial (C/I, right column) regions. Dashed lines are simulated values in the control case. (For
interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
18 S. Arghavani et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 261 (2020) 121183

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Writing - review & editing. Andrade, H., Vieira, R., 2007. A climatic study of an urban green space: the Gul-
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