Regionalist Principles to Reduce the Urban Heat Island Effect

Leyre Echevarría Icaza,Franklin Van Der Hoeven

doi:10.3390/su9050677

Leyre Echevarría Icaza, Franklin Van Der Hoeven

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su9050677

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Apr 25, 2017
Citations: 3	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Delft University of Technology

Abstract

Scientists, climatologists, and urban planners have started to recognize the importance of nature at two very different scales: the global (metabolic) and the local (liveability) scales. The regional scale is the one at which these macro and micro approaches overlap. Future predictions foresee an increase of more than 2450 million urban inhabitants by 2050, thus new balanced urban visions need to be developed in order to guarantee the sustainability of urban areas. The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect is a climate phenomenon resulting from unbalanced urban design arrangements. This paper analyses several design principles proposed by the 1920s regionalists from the UHI perspective. The preservation of the regional geographical landmarks, the implementation of urban containment policies (limiting city sizes), the increase of greenery and the development of green multifunctional blocks would help reduce the UHI in future urban developments.

Highlights

Scientists, climatologists, and urban planners have started to recognize the importance of the role of nature at two very different scales
- Do the regionalist principles developed by Geddes and Mumford still apply to the 21st century urbanization context?
This paper evaluates Mumford’s regionalist principles to test the validity of design and planning guidelines that help to define regional balance and equilibrium between compactness and sprawl in order to reduce Urban Heat Island (UHI) formation

Summary

Introduction

Scientists, climatologists, and urban planners have started to recognize the importance of the role of nature at two very different scales. On the one hand there is a metabolic approach to sustainability, which highlights the fact that nature is no longer the endless city supplier of resources (food, water, fuel, etc.) and its insatiable waste and emission disposal sink [1,2,3,4]. Urban planners continue to highlight the indisputable role of nature in urban planning processes, emphasising the metabolic approach [2,3,4]. In our globalized and interconnected world, this metabolic approach analyses the role of nature at a planetary scale aiming at promoting more rational transportation and supply/consumption patterns. The role of nature at the city scale is being examined: pollution, the effects of the urban heat island, and endless transportation journeys inside cities threaten to jeopardize the liveability of many modern cities. At the local level, green infrastructure plays a provisioning (such as food and water), supporting (habitat, nutrient, water cycling, etc.), regulating (climate, air quality, soil quality, etc.), and cultural (recreational, educational, etc.) role [6]

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