Abstract
Economic and social development of urban and rural areas continues in parallel with the increase of the human population, especially in developing countries, which leads to sustained expansion of impervious surface areas, particularly paved surfaces. The conversion of pervious surfaces to impervious surfaces significantly modifies local energy balance in urban areas and contributes to urban heat island (UHI) formation, mainly in densely developed cities. This paper represents a literature review on the causes and consequences of the UHI and potential measures that could be adopted to improve the urban microclimate. The primary focus is to discuss and summarise significant findings on the UHI phenomenon and its consequences, such as the impact on human thermal comfort and health, energy consumption, air pollution, and surface water quality deterioration. Regarding the measures to mitigate UHI, particular emphasis is given to the reflective and permeable pavements.
Highlights
Urbanisation has many benefits, it can be considered a significant driver of environmental problems [1]
They stated that an increase of imperviousness by 10%, where the impervious surface already occupies more than 70%, could increase the land surface temperature by more than 3.3 ◦ C
It discusses the major findings on the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon, its causes and consequences, such as the impact on human thermal comfort and health, energy consumption, air pollution, and surface water quality deterioration
Summary
Urbanisation has many benefits, it can be considered a significant driver of environmental problems [1]. An increase in impervious surfaces, such as asphalt and concrete pavements, results in increased land surface temperature [12,13,14,15,16] due to the modification of local energy balance through the changes of materials thermal properties (e.g., albedo, specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity) [17]. Urban population growth, and urban land expansion will probably increase temperatures in urban areas and make the UHI effect more prominent. This paper presents a literature review on the causes and consequences of the UHI and potential measures that could be adopted to ameliorate urban microclimate It discusses the major findings on the UHI phenomenon, its causes and consequences, such as the impact on human thermal comfort and health, energy consumption, air pollution, and surface water quality deterioration. Regarding the measures to mitigate UHI, particular emphasis is given to the reflective and permeable pavements
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