What is heat mitigation?

Heat mitigation strategies can reduce excess heat in urban environments. These strategies, including solar reflective cool roofs and pavements, green vegetative roofs, and street vegetation, alter the surface energy balance to reduce absorption of sunlight at the surface and subsequent transfer to the urban atmosphere.

How do you mitigate the heat island effect?

What You Can Do to Reduce Heat Islands

1. Increase shade around your home.
2. Install green roofs.
3. Install cool roofs.
4. Use energy-efficient appliances and equipment.
5. Check on your friends, family, and neighbors.

What is a heat island and what is its impact?

Heat islands are urbanized areas that experience higher temperatures than outlying areas. Structures such as buildings, roads, and other infrastructure absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than natural landscapes such as forests and water bodies.

Why is heat island effect important?

Heat islands contribute to higher daytime temperatures, reduced nighttime cooling, and higher air-pollution levels. These, in turn, contribute to heat-related deaths and heat-related illnesses such as general discomfort, respiratory difficulties, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and non-fatal heat stroke.

What is heat island mitigation?

Typically heat island mitigation is part of a community’s energy, air quality, water, or sustainability effort. Activities to reduce heat islands range from voluntary initiatives, such as cool pavement demonstration projects, to policy actions, such as requiring cool roofs via building codes.

What is urban heat island mitigation?

Mitigation of the urban heat island effect can be accomplished through the use of green roofs and the use of lighter-colored surfaces in urban areas, which reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat. Urbanization has made the effects of climate change worse in cities.

What are some ways of reducing the effects of heat in cities?

Extreme heat events often affect our most vulnerable populations first. Trees, green roofs, and vegetation can help reduce urban heat island effects by shading building surfaces, deflecting radiation from the sun, and releasing moisture into the atmosphere.

How do heat islands impact water quality?

Increases in heat within urban centers increases the length of growing seasons and decreases the occurrence of weak tornadoes. The UHI decreases air quality by increasing the production of pollutants such as ozone, and decreases water quality as warmer waters flow into area streams and put stress on their ecosystems.

How do heat islands affect the environment?

According to EPA, “The term “heat island” describes built up areas that are hotter than nearby rural areas. Heat islands can affect communities by increasing summertime peak energy demand, air conditioning costs, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, heat-related illness and mortality, and water quality.”

How do heat islands contribute to city temperatures?

Urban Heat Islands The urban heat island effect happens because the closely packed buildings and paved surfaces that make up our cities amplify and trap heat far more effectively than natural ecosystems and rural areas, which are often shaded by trees and vegetation and cooled by evaporating moisture.

How do heat islands affect the surrounding regions?

Because the heat is trapped on lower levels, the temperature is warmer. Urban heat islands can have worse air and water quality than their rural neighbors. This is especially true in urban areas that suffer from urban heat island effects. UHIs contribute to energy demands in the summer, straining energy resources.

How does urban heat island effect climate change?

With the heat island effect compounding the warming from climate change, cities will likely require more electricity for air conditioning than surrounding areas. For example, based on a 6.3 to 9°F temperature increase, climate change could increase the need for additional generating capacity by roughly 10-20\% by 2050.

What is the heat island effect?

Heat Island Effect. Heat islands are urbanized areas that experience higher temperatures than outlying areas. Structures such as buildings, roads, and other infrastructure absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than natural landscapes such as forests and water bodies.

How do you fix a heat island in your community?

Transform your community one project at a time by planting native, drought-tolerant shade trees and smaller plants such as shrubs, grasses, and groundcover wherever possible. Build green roofs—Green roofs are an ideal heat island reduction strategy, providing both direct and ambient cooling effects.

What are the different types of heat islands?

1 Surface Heat Islands. These heat islands form because urban surfaces such as roadways and rooftops absorb and emit heat… 2 Atmospheric Heat Islands. These heat islands form as a result of warmer air in urban areas compared to cooler air in… More

What causes a heat island on a roof?

Surface Heat Islands. These heat islands form because urban surfaces such as roadways and rooftops absorb and emit heat to a greater extent than most natural surfaces. On a warm day with a temperature of 91°F, conventional roofing materials may reach as high as 60°F warmer than air temperatures. [2]