Heat Islands; Understanding and Mitigating Heat in Urban Areas

Citation

Warren, C.M.J. (2012), "Heat Islands; Understanding and Mitigating Heat in Urban Areas", Property Management, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 105-106. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.2012.30.1.105.2

This book is not typical property management reading. Indeed, nowhere in the text does it even refer to the role of property management. Yet I have to say, it is highly relevant to what we do in providing, maintaining and managing the use of property assets within a city environment.

The text describes in detail the incidence of the heat island effect within major urban areas, drawing on examples as diverse as Melbourne, Australia, and New York, USA. The heat island phenomenon was first described back in 1818, with respect to London. Heat islands occur as a result of the absorption of the sun's heat by many of the common construction materials used in developed urban areas. These materials absorb more heat than the natural materials used in less developed rural areas, and the result is a much greater retention of heat within the structure and hence, within the surrounding urban environment. The examples provided show that night‐time temperatures are often several degrees higher in urban areas than the immediate surrounding rural region.

Chapter Two discusses the causes of heat island effects, in terms of the ability of different materials to reflect solar radiation and to absorb and retain heat. It describes different methods of measuring heat island effects in materials and within buildings. A number of freely available web‐based tools are discussed, including the US Energy Star roofing comparison calculator, which allows for the estimation of energy savings within a building, depending on the type of roofing material used, along with levels of insulation and other key metrics. This section is of particular interest to property managers, as it provides practical guidance to the types of roofing materials that can help to reduce heat island effects, and consequently reduce energy consumption in buildings.

Various roofing materials commonly used in construction, and the selection of “cool paving” is evaluated next. These two surfaces combine to constitute much of the surface area of built‐up urban environments and, as such, the choice of materials used can significantly contribute to the heat island effect and, in turn, lead to hotter city temperatures, reduced evaporation, higher energy use, and poor air quality. The importance of providing trees and other vegetation within urban environments is also discussed, providing evidence from studies in a number of major cities around the world. These studies show that planting vegetation on exposed wall surfaces can reduce wall temperatures by up to 20 degrees centigrade and the use of trees adjacent to buildings can reduce cooling energy costs by up to 40 per cent.

So I would certainly recommend that all property professionals take note of this book. It certainly provides some interesting evidence of the effect that building design and management can have on the energy demands of buildings and the consequences for the urban environment. It is a very useful reference text for anyone involved in the design or retrofitting of commercial buildings, and is an area of property management that, in my view, has not received the attention that it deserves.