Review and Critical Analysis of International UHI Studies

1 INTRODUCTION
This investigation seeks to provide an assessment of all international urban heat island (UHI)
research and identify the leading global researchers that will convene to discuss the emerging
issues and develop a research priority plan that will help validate the CO2 mitigation potential of
the key mitigating technologies. This study examines and identifies the salient findings across all
the UHI literature collected concerning UHI mitigation potentials and related techno‐economic
factors. It seeks to identify not only the current status across the entire UHI value chain but also
to identify gaps in relevant research conducted to date thus helping identify a set of
recommended priority areas for policy and research. Due to the nature of the research and the
significance of the geographical location and climate type each source is examined for its regional
significance and transferability of findings. For each study, we also summarize key data,
including the author, publication date, journal, areas of research addressed and the key
outcomes.
The structure of the report, in alignment with the objectives of the investigation, is as follows:
Chapter 2, Evidence of Urban Heat Islands: reviews the key papers which examine the
fundamental causal factors to the observed urban heat island phenomena and how the literature
measures the magnitude of the UHI impacts.
Chapter 3, Quantitative Modeling and Simulation of Urban Heat Islands: This section provides
an insight into the modeling and simulation tools which are used to evaluate the urban heat
island phenomena and mitigation technologies/strategies. The models are classified by what they
simulate: temperature; air quality; energy consumption; and mitigation strategies (surface albedo,
green roofs and urban green areas, and urban form & planning).
Chapter 4, Mitigation of Urban Heat Islands: This section provides a review of the literature
gathered on the urban heat island mitigation technologies and strategies and summarizes the
salient points from these studies. The studies reviewed have been collected from across the globe
and seek to highlight the mitigation potentials of the technologies, their current status and the
related techno‐economic factors applying to both existing and newly built urban environments.
The papers are categorized and reviewed as follows: Energy/Peak Power/CO2; Economic
Assessment; Policy/Strategic Assessment; Technologies; Implementation Issues; Urban
Design/Planning; and Environmental Assessment ‐ for each of these sections the underlying
principles, a summary and the salient points from the literature review follow. In the case of the
key mitigation technologies it provides an overview of the current status of the policy and a
critique focused on identifying the limitations and research gaps in the existing studies.
Chapter 5, Critical Review of Urban Heat Island Countermeasures: This section provides a
critical analysis of the studies and the opportunities for scale‐up efforts leading from local to
national and national to international efforts. This analysis examines the two principal methods
in which the UHI countermeasures mitigate global warming impacts; provides a critical review
of the policy actions for each of the key mitigating technologies, highlighting the current status
across the globe, barriers to scale‐up, the reach and level of implementation of these policies and
Review and Critical Analysis of International UHI Studies
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