ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

Urban heat islands assessment for building city resilience: a novel approach

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 05 | ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE

Speaker

Mrs Barbara Mušič (Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia)

Description

Europe is recognised as the fastest-warming continent where the temperatures are rising twice compared to the global average rate and the summer of 2024 was the hottest (C3S, 2024) causing a negative impact on people´s health, city functions, nature and economy (Aboulnaga et al., 2024; Tong et al., 2021). Thus, areas with urban heat islands (UHI), as the most vulnerable areas to heat waves in cities, became a core topic addressed by the Be Ready project, co-financed by the INTERREG Danube Programme (Be Ready, 2024). The project's main aim is to jointly develop strategies for improving climate change preparedness and resilience of 10 involved cities in the project.
Oke (2011) defined UHI as a relative warmth of the city compared to the surrounding rural areas. This phenomenon is caused by the capacities, especially construction materials of storing and releasing heat energy from the sun into the urban climate (Prashad, 2015). Mapping critical areas within inner cities is essential for developing effective urban strategies. While researchers have developed methodologies for assessing cities in terms of UHIs, these approaches often focus solely on the physical aspects of the built environment, and they do not encompass a broader range of factors. To address this gap, the Be Ready project has developed a novel, comprehensive method for assessing UHIs. This new assessment tool integrates multiple dimensions which are beyond the physical environment, making it applicable to other cities and providing a more holistic understanding of urban heat dynamics.
The Be Ready risk assessment tool encompasses four key elements: the exposure of buildings and surroundings, the sensitivity of equipment and materials, the identification of risk groups among city residents, and the preparedness and adaptive capacity of cities. This comprehensive approach was implemented in ten cities across the Danube region, including Chisinau (Moldova), Galati (Romania), Heviz (Hungary), Kranj (Slovenia), Niš (Serbia), Podgorica (Montenegro), Ratibor (Czech Republic), Sofia (Bulgaria), Zenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Varaždin (Croatia). These cities applied the methodological framework to assess urban areas vulnerable to the negative effects of UHIs, identifying critical areas that require attention in the development of climate change strategies. The study aims to evaluate the level of city preparedness for UHIs and to identify the critical factors influencing the assessment across different urban contexts.
This paper aims to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of UHIs, elucidating their causes and the negative effects that must be addressed in urban climate adaptation strategies. Assessment tools are instrumental for city authorities, local decision-makers, urban planners, and climate experts in identifying critical zones within cities, and vulnerable risk groups, and in formulating policies and strategies tailored to the specificities of each city and its micro-locations. The implementation of the Be Ready risk assessment tool presents an opportunity for cities to enhance their resilience and foster further development adaptable to climate change challenges, incorporating other risk factors associated with the adverse effects of this.

References

Aboulnaga, M., Trombadore, A., Mostafa, M., Abouaiana, A. (2024). Understanding Urban Heat Island Effect: Causes, Impacts, Factors, and Strategies for Better Livability and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation. In: Livable Cities. Springer, Cham. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51220-9_2
Be ready (2024). [Online] available at: https://interreg-danube.eu/projects/be-ready
Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). (2024). European State of the Climate 2023, Summary. Available at: https://doi.org/10.24381/bs9v-8c66
Prashad, L. (2014). Urban Heat Island. In: Njoku, E.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Remote Sensing. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, New York, NY. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_81
Oke, T. (2011). Urban heat islands. In The Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology, New York, NY: Routledge p. 120.
Tong S., Prior J, McGregor G., Shi X., Kinney P. (2021). Urban heat: an increasing threat to global health BMJ 2021; 375 :n2467 doi:10.1136/bmj.n2467