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Mitigating Urban Heat Islands through sustainable development

Inge, Vaughan van (2023) Mitigating Urban Heat Islands through sustainable development. Bachelor thesis.

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Abstract

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect is largely to blame for cities becoming increasingly unsustainable. Sustainable development is frequently cited as the panacea to this unsustainable problem. However, the relationship between sustainable development and the UHI effect has not been covered in depth in literature. The subject of how the UHI effect relates to sustainable development and what it entails for particular mitigation strategies and government policy is raised. The broad term of sustainable development is reduced to three specific land development principles related to the UHI effect. (i) higher-density development, (ii) energy and resource- efficient urban design, and (iii) protection of natural and biological functions and processes. From these principles, case studies are identified where an effect on the UHI effect is measured. An impact on the UHI is measured as a change in local air temperatures. The first principle, densification, is seen to primarily increase the UHI effect in ranges from 1 °C and 2°C both during the day and night. In contrast, the other two development principles are seen to decrease air temperatures up to 1 °C during the day but only show minor effects during the night. Across the different case studies examined, the magnitude of the effect is roughly the same. This implies that sustainable development can negatively and positively impact the UHI effect. However, combating nighttime UHIs through sustainable development is challenging. Policies looking to combat the UHI effects must focus on compensating urban densification with the other development principles or look beyond sustainable development. The articles analysed did not combine multiple land development principles. The combination of different land development principles and their effect on the UHI effect has to be further studied.

Item Type: Thesis (Bachelor)
Degree programme: Spatial Planning and Design
Supervisor: Theron, C.
Date Deposited: 23 Feb 2024 12:39
Last Modified: 23 Feb 2024 12:39
URI: https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/4474

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