STUDY ON THE CONTROL OF THERMAL ENVIRONMENT IN URBAN AREAS

• Published in: ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS RESEARCH Vol. 20; pp. 262 - 269
• Main Authors: MORI, Keitaro, IMURA, Hidefumi, UENO, Takahito, MAEDA, Toshiie, URYU, Nagachika
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan Society of Civil Engineers 1992
• Subjects: heat island; remote sensing; thermal environmental control; thermal structure of cities; urban climate
• ISSN: 0915-0390; 1884-8117
• DOI: 10.2208/proer1988.20.262

Energy consumption in urban areas is increasing with expanding population and human activities. With this, physical structure of urban land surface is subject to rapid changes due to construction of higher buildings, increasing concrete covers, decreasing wooded areas, etc. This causes climatic changes in urban areas, such as the rise in average temperature, formation of heat islands and dry weather. The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between the physical structure of cities and their thermal characteristics, and thereby to obtain practical information for controling the thermal environment in cities. The onedimensional energy budget model developed by Atwater was applied to calculate interface temperature in Fukuoka City area. The computation was performed by changing parameter values of albedo, roughness height and moisture availability, and the effect of these parameters and boundary conditions was examined. Surface temperature computed by the model was compared with the brightness temperature obtained by remote sensing data (LANDSAT TM and NOAA).