The urban heat island effect in Dutch city centres

In the Netherlands awareness regarding the Urban Heat Island (UHI) was raised relatively recently. Because of this recent understanding, there is a lack of consistent urban micro-meteorological measurements to allow a conventional UHI assessment of Dutch cities during heat waves. This paper argues...

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Main Authors: Leyre Echevarria Icaza, Frank van der Hoeven, Andy van den Dobbelsteen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Delft University of Technology 2017-12-01
Series:A+BE: Architecture and the Built Environment
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/abe/article/view/3472
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author Leyre Echevarria Icaza
Frank van der Hoeven
Andy van den Dobbelsteen
author_facet Leyre Echevarria Icaza
Frank van der Hoeven
Andy van den Dobbelsteen
author_sort Leyre Echevarria Icaza
collection DOAJ
description In the Netherlands awareness regarding the Urban Heat Island (UHI) was raised relatively recently. Because of this recent understanding, there is a lack of consistent urban micro-meteorological measurements to allow a conventional UHI assessment of Dutch cities during heat waves. This paper argues that it is possible to retrieve relevant UHI information – including adaptation guidelines – from satellite imagery. The paper comprises three parts. The first part consists of a study of suited indicators to identify urban heat islands from which a method is presented based on ground heat flux mapping. The second part proposes heat mitigation strategies and identifies the areas where these strategies could be applied within the hotspots identified in the cities of The Hague, Delft, Leiden, Gouda, Utrecht and Den Bosch. The third part estimates the reduction of urban heat generated by the increase of roof albedo in the hotspots of the six cities. The six cities hotspots are located within the boundaries of the 17th century city centres. In order to avoid interference with cultural values of these historical environments most likely UHI mitigation measures regard improving the thermal behaviour of the city roofs. For instance, applying white coatings on bitumen flat roofs (or replacing them by white single-ply membranes) and replacing sloped roof clay tiles by coloured tiles with cool pigments can reduce the urban heat hotspots by approximately 1.5°C. Remote sensing provides high level information that provide urban planners and policy makers with overall design guidelines for the reduction of urban heat.
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spelling doaj.art-51a8aa5ee01e47ee81f962a23e6ae34d2023-03-11T23:03:05ZengDelft University of TechnologyA+BE: Architecture and the Built Environment2212-32022214-72332017-12-0172010.7480/abe.2017.20.3472The urban heat island effect in Dutch city centresLeyre Echevarria Icaza0Frank van der Hoeven1Andy van den Dobbelsteen2TU Delft, Architecture and the Built EnvironmentTU Delft, Architecture and the Built EnvironmentTU Delft, Architecture and the Built Environment In the Netherlands awareness regarding the Urban Heat Island (UHI) was raised relatively recently. Because of this recent understanding, there is a lack of consistent urban micro-meteorological measurements to allow a conventional UHI assessment of Dutch cities during heat waves. This paper argues that it is possible to retrieve relevant UHI information – including adaptation guidelines – from satellite imagery. The paper comprises three parts. The first part consists of a study of suited indicators to identify urban heat islands from which a method is presented based on ground heat flux mapping. The second part proposes heat mitigation strategies and identifies the areas where these strategies could be applied within the hotspots identified in the cities of The Hague, Delft, Leiden, Gouda, Utrecht and Den Bosch. The third part estimates the reduction of urban heat generated by the increase of roof albedo in the hotspots of the six cities. The six cities hotspots are located within the boundaries of the 17th century city centres. In order to avoid interference with cultural values of these historical environments most likely UHI mitigation measures regard improving the thermal behaviour of the city roofs. For instance, applying white coatings on bitumen flat roofs (or replacing them by white single-ply membranes) and replacing sloped roof clay tiles by coloured tiles with cool pigments can reduce the urban heat hotspots by approximately 1.5°C. Remote sensing provides high level information that provide urban planners and policy makers with overall design guidelines for the reduction of urban heat. https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/abe/article/view/3472Climate ChangeUrban Heat IslandStorage Heat FluxRemote SensingClimate AdaptationNDVI
spellingShingle Leyre Echevarria Icaza
Frank van der Hoeven
Andy van den Dobbelsteen
The urban heat island effect in Dutch city centres
A+BE: Architecture and the Built Environment
Climate Change
Urban Heat Island
Storage Heat Flux
Remote Sensing
Climate Adaptation
NDVI
title The urban heat island effect in Dutch city centres
title_full The urban heat island effect in Dutch city centres
title_fullStr The urban heat island effect in Dutch city centres
title_full_unstemmed The urban heat island effect in Dutch city centres
title_short The urban heat island effect in Dutch city centres
title_sort urban heat island effect in dutch city centres
topic Climate Change
Urban Heat Island
Storage Heat Flux
Remote Sensing
Climate Adaptation
NDVI
url https://journals.open.tudelft.nl/abe/article/view/3472
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