Review and Critical Analysis of International UHI Studies

This section reports the findings from UHI studies that address the above issues. This section
seeks to highlight the key design/planning issues that can have impact from the local to global
scale. The aim is to report findings as the literature addresses these designs/plans. Furthermore, it
reports any activities/solutions/outcomes that have evolved within the design and planning
domain.
4.7.2 Urban Design and Planning Summary of Literature and Findings
The studies examining the urban design and planning were limited both in number and in scope.
Different approaches were undertaken ranging from defining modeling tools to aid urban
design/planning to case/region‐specific design and planning challenge identification. One of the
studies used a simple model of heat fluxes in urban areas to evaluate the effectiveness of various
planning strategies and present planners with the option to minimize resource use while
maximizing social, economic and environmental goals. The case/region specific studies were
predominantly focused on green infrastructure seeking to facilitate planning for future
expansions of green space, identifying influencing performance factors, and predicting the
cooling effect in urban areas to aid the development of tools for incorporating the climatic effects
of green areas in urban design.
The studies indicate the importance that designers and planners are equipped with appropriate
tools and rules of thumb to understand what urban design characteristics best mitigate the
undesirable UHI effects at the micro and macro level. It was evident in Japan that the approach to
urban planning and design changes were shifting away from individual isolated efforts to
mitigate UHIs towards improved infrastructure of the urban areas (roads, green space, and
rivers) and a desire to influence urban planning through more invasive interventions in the form
of deployment measures such as developing wind paths for city scale ventilation. The presented
studies are limited and only touch‐upon the critical issues. Further work is required to help
policy makers, planners and designers appreciate and develop tools to design buildings and
cities with UHI/climate sensitive design features.
4.7.3 Urban Design/Planning Literature Review
Sixteen references addressed urban design and planning issues [006, 007, 010, 045, 047, 054, 056,
101, 109, 112, 202, 203, 204, 225, 226, 232]. Of these papers, six define useful modeling tools that
can aid in urban design/planning issues [054, 056, 202, 204, 225, 232]; four studies examine the
design and planning challenges through case studies [006, 010, 101, 109]; three provide an
overview to general planning and provide recommendations [007, 112, 203]; two provide a
broader perspective of urban planning from a Japanese viewpoint [047, 045], and one paper
studies the use of materials in urban design [226].
The four case studies despite their regional focus generate results that have global applicability
and are summarized below:
� The UK study explores the important role that green infrastructure of a city can play in
adapting for climate change. It presents these climate change solutions which have
significant overlap with UHI mitigation solutions. It uses the output from energy exchange
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