The Cooling Effect of a Medium Sized Park on an Urban Environment

Abstract

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect can best be described as an increase in the temperature of urban areas relative to their surroundings. This effect can exceed 5 o C in places. This study investigates how vegetation, in particular urban parklands, can be used to reduce the intensity of the UHI effect. To achieve this, the study uses a ground based approach relying on high spatial and temporal resolution temperature measurements using both a hand-held weather meter and a hand-held thermal laser-gun. The study focusses on one medium sized park in Melbourne, Australia and samples air temperatures (at 5 cm and 1.5 m above the ground) and land surface temperature profiles six times a day over one month starting within the park and extending to approximately 1 km outside of the park. The study shows that the park has a significant cooling effect for a distance of up to 860 m from its boundaries and that this is most significant in the early morning. The study also shows that land surface temperatures are more sensitive to park cooling effects than are air temperatures.

Seed Priming with Silicon as a Potential to Increase Salt Stress Tolerance in Lathyrus odoratus

“…Currently, many countries are attempting to increase the amount of green areas and landscapes in urban environments, due to their vital role in mitigating climate change, and the impact of heat [ 1 , 2 ], air pollution [ 3 ], and water pollution [ 4 ]. In addition, they have a positive effect in terms of reducing respiratory illness, allergies, and improving public health [ 3 , 5 , 6 ].…”

The Integration of Human Thermal Comfort in an Outdoor Campus Landscape in a Tropical Climate

“…Urbanization is a major cause of the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon, related to a high percentage of low-albedo and impermeable surfaces, a reduction in the cooling effect of shading, built-up areas and especially the urban canyon, where heat is reradiated and reflected to the surrounded environment [6].…”

“…Planners always include shade trees wherever possible as a strategy to reduce heat islands and improve the outdoor environment in three ways: through shading, evapotranspiration, and wind shielding [7], [8]. The studies in many regions confirm that tree shade is an ecological solution to reduce both the mean radiant and surface temperature, as tree canopy can filter and absorb solar radiation and has the greatest affect a human's thermal comfort or physiological equivalent temperature (PET) [7], [9].At the macro scale, urban parks have been demonstrated to have a significant cooling effect that is strongest for land surface temperatures of surrounding urban areas as far as 860 m from the park boundary [6].…”

“…While pavements with light-colored surfaces can offset or reverse the heat island due to a high solar reflectance and high thermal emittance, and they can also reduce the temperature of the surface, which reduces the urban temperature and improves the urban air quality during the summer season [6], [11], [12], [13].…”

Modeling of Evapotranspiration (ETo) in a Medium Urban Park within a Megacity by Using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Model

“…Studying the effect of urban parks on environment has been investigated for many aspects, such as cooling effect [17,18] and land surface temperature [19]. However, urban park has another interaction with hydrological cycle, particularly evapotranspiration due to parks should be watering and parks have different types of vegetation, which caused evaporation and transpiration respectively.…”