The Effect of

Changing Materials in
Order to Minimize
Urban Heat Island
Robel Wolde, Lillian Kwon
Agenda
• Introduction
• Research Question
• Hypothesis
• Experimental Design
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
Introduction
The Problem:
• Urban Heat Island [UHI] is a big problem for metropolitan
cities
• Contributor to global warming

• Leads to...
• Higher daytime temperatures
• Less nighttime cooling
• More air pollution
• Socioeconomic inequality

• ~15-20° F hotter in urban cities than their rural

counterparts (Urban Heat Island 101)
Introduction
How it works:
• Heat rays from the sun enter an urban area
• Due to low albedo surfaces, heat is absorbed
rather than reflected
• Heat is trapped in the atmosphere of the city,
leading to higher temperatures
Introduction

The Solution:
• Through research on UHI, numerous strategies were found to
relieve cities of the phenomenon
• The effect of albedo on cities
• Experimentation of this strategy will prove its effectiveness
The data collected will support current research on this topic
Research Question
What would be the effect of changing the
materials within an urban space to minimize the
urban heat island phenomenon?
Hypothesis
If the materials that go into constructing a building
are changed to ones with higher reflectivity or
albedo, then the time it takes to reach the maximum
temperature will increase because the high albedo
will allow light and heat to travel more efficiently
rather than getting trapped in low reflectivity
materials.
Engineering Goal
• Aims to find a solution to the urban heat island phenomenon by
developing infrastructure that is biophilic and sustainable and is
capable of implementing more reflective material

• Create a replica of an existing building that is susceptible to urban

heat island with innovative measures that help alleviate the
problem of overheating

• Main objective: successfully build the models and determine if

changing the materials to ones with higher albedo will create the
difference in temperatures that is hypothesized
Experimental Design
Independent Variable:
– The materials used in the building
Dependent Variable:
– The amount of time the building took to reach a
maximum temperature of 107° Fahrenheit
Constants:
– The shape of the building, distance of the heat lamp to
the center of the roof, distance of laser thermometer
and center of the roof, starting temperature
Methodology
• Break up the sections of the
experiment
• Construction of the model
• Experimentation
Procedure:
• Tested one at a time by aiming a heat
lamp towards the center of the roof
• As the time went on, the temperature
of the roof was periodically tracked
using a laser thermometer.

• Refinements • Data collection ended when the roof

hit the maximum temperature in
Fahrenheit.
Building Process
Building Process
The Buildings
Building A Building B

Changes made
ü Painted a lighter
color
ü Added green life
Experiment Process
Building A (no additions) Building B (with additions)
Results
Building A Building B
Discussion
Data supports the hypothesis
• Building B took 40% longer to heat up than
its unfortified counterpart
• Proves that using higher albedo materials
reduces UHI
Implications of this data
• Helps urban city planners know what to do
to combat UHI
• Helps engineering design ways to cool
condensed environments
Conclusion
This research sought to prove a method to combat
UHI: changing materials
• Low albedo à high albedo

Results provided evidence that higher albedo led to

longer time to reach maximum temperature

UHI can cause many severe effects, highlighting the

importance of continuing research in this field
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Thank you
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