Urban forestry and cool roofs: Assessment of heat mitigation strategies in Phoenix residential neighborhoods

Middel, Ariane; Chhetri, Nalini; Quay, Ray

doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2014.09.010

Cited by 221 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Urban climate research completed in the Phoenix metropolitan area demonstrates that air and surface temperatures differ widely across area neighborhoods, with the greatest differences during summertime heat waves (e.g., Chow et al, 2012;Harlan, Brazel, Prashad, Stefanov, & Larsen, 2006;Hartz, Prashad, Hedquist, Golden, & Brazel, 2006;Jenerette, Harlan, Stefanov, & Martin, 2011;Middel et al, 2015). However, we demonstrate that within urban neighborhoods and small playgrounds, these surface temperatures vary significantly-and with implications for human thermal comfort and safety-at spatial scales as fine as 1 cm.…”

Section: Playground Design In Hot Climatesmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…Most cities are not designed to ameliorate the effects of warming, although it is well known that this is possible through evidence-based climate-responsive design of urban spaces (Brown, Vanos, Kenny, & Lenzholzer, 2015;Erell, Pearlmutter, & Williamson, 2012;Masson et al, 2014;Middel, Chhetri, & Quay, 2015). Properly designed playgrounds contribute to microscale cooling, serving as heat refuges through the summer season (Cheng, Wei, Chen, Li, & Song, 2014;Chow, Pope, Martin, & Brazel, 2011;Vanos, Warland, Gillespie, Slater, et al, 2012), as well as comfortable and safe places for children to play and engage in activities for improved health and well-being (Ciucci et al, 2013;Moore & Cosco, 2014;Vanos, 2015;Wolch et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hot playgrounds and children's health: A multiscale analysis of surface temperatures in Arizona, USA

Vanos

Middel

McKercher

et al. 2016

Landscape and Urban Planning

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h i g h l i g h t s• A mismatch exists between remotely sensed and in situ urban surface temperatures (T s ).• The hottest T s in a Phoenix area neighborhood were found on playground surfaces.• Children are more vulnerable to the effects of heat stress and high T s than adults.• Shade of any type is found effective in reducing T s and improving thermal safety.• Data must be collected at the touch-scale for spatially accurate high T s mitigation. a r t i c l e i n f o b s t r a c tObjectives: To provide novel quantification and advanced measurements of surface temperatures (T s ) in playgrounds, employing multiple scales of data, and provide insight into hot-hazard mitigation techniques and designs for improved environmental and public health. Methods: We conduct an analysis of T s in two Metro-Phoenix playgrounds at three scales: neighborhood (1 km resolution), microscale (6.8 m resolution), and touch-scale (1 cm resolution). Data were derived from two sources: airborne remote sensing (neighborhood and microscale) and in situ (playground site) infrared T s (touch-scale). Metrics of surface-to-air temperature deltas ( T s-a ) and scale offsets (errors) are introduced. Results: Select in situ T s in direct sunlight are shown to approach or surpass values likely to result in burns to children at touch-scales much finer than T s resolved by airborne remote sensing. Scale offsets based on neighbourhood and microscale ground observations are 3.8 • C and 7.3 • C less than the T s-a at the 1 cm touch-scale, respectively, and 6.6 • C and 10.1 • C lower than touch-scale playground equipment T s , respectively. Hence, the coarser scales underestimate high T s within playgrounds. Both natural (tree) and artificial (shade sail) shade types are associated with significant reductions in T s . Conclusions: A scale mismatch exists based on differing methods of urban T s measurement. The sub-meter touch-scale is the spatial scale at which data must be collected and policies of urban landscape design and health must be executed in order to mitigate high T s in high-contact environments such as playgrounds. Shade implementation is the most promising mitigation technique to reduce child burns, increase park usability, and mitigate urban heating.

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Section: Playground Design In Hot Climatesmentioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hot playgrounds and children's health: A multiscale analysis of surface temperatures in Arizona, USA

Vanos

Middel

McKercher

et al. 2016

Landscape and Urban Planning

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Consequently, Africa will make up an increasingly larger fraction of total urban land (Güneralp & Seto, 2013). Such recognition of anticipated urban expansion has implications for prioritization of strategies guiding sustainable urban development (i.e., retrofitting relative to planning of future cities), which have largely focused on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and on land-based solutions such as green and cool roofs (Georgescu et al, 2014;Sailor, 2008), increased vegetation fraction (Krayenhoff et al, 2014;Middel et al, 2015), and local engineering-based solutions (Meggers et al, 2016). In addition to potentially beneficial aspects of landscape configuration (Connors et al, 2013), deployment of natural capital within built environments may provide considerable additional human and environmental cobenefits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Global Geospatial Ecosystem Services Estimate of Urban Agriculture

et al. 2018

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Though urban agriculture (UA), defined here as growing of crops in cities, is increasing in popularity and importance globally, little is known about the aggregate benefits of such natural capital in built‐up areas. Here, we introduce a quantitative framework to assess global aggregate ecosystem services from existing vegetation in cities and an intensive UA adoption scenario based on data‐driven estimates of urban morphology and vacant land. We analyzed global population, urban, meteorological, terrain, and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) datasets in Google Earth Engine to derive global scale estimates, aggregated by country, of services provided by UA. We estimate the value of four ecosystem services provided by existing vegetation in urban areas to be on the order of $33 billion annually. We project potential annual food production of 100–180 million tonnes, energy savings ranging from 14 to 15 billion kilowatt hours, nitrogen sequestration between 100,000 and 170,000 tonnes, and avoided storm water runoff between 45 and 57 billion cubic meters annually. In addition, we estimate that food production, nitrogen fixation, energy savings, pollination, climate regulation, soil formation and biological control of pests could be worth as much as $80–160 billion annually in a scenario of intense UA implementation. Our results demonstrate significant country‐to‐country variability in UA‐derived ecosystem services and reduction of food insecurity. These estimates represent the first effort to consistently quantify these incentives globally, and highlight the relative spatial importance of built environments to act as change agents that alleviate mounting concerns associated with global environmental change and unsustainable development.

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“…While proximity to parks and green spaces is vital in cooling residential neighborhoods, the cooling effects of green roofs, cool roofs, and green space on urban microclimate is also central to UHI mitigation [18,21,33,48,49]. To reduce rooftop surface temperatures, green roof (vegetation cover) and reflective roof (high albedo rooftop materials) are two primary materials to create "UHI-ameliorated" roofs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To reduce rooftop surface temperatures, green roof (vegetation cover) and reflective roof (high albedo rooftop materials) are two primary materials to create "UHI-ameliorated" roofs. Thus, shifting to high albedo rooftops, rooftop gardens, or green roofs potentially helps reduce UHI effect for individual structures [21,24,[49][50][51][52]. Akbari et al [22] discussed the cooling energy savings of high-albedo rooftops during peak power in a house and a school in Sacramento, California.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rooftop Surface Temperature Analysis in an Urban Residential Environment

et al. 2015

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Abstract:The urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon is a significant worldwide problem caused by rapid population growth and associated urbanization. The UHI effect exacerbates heat waves during the summer, increases energy and water consumption, and causes the high risk of heat-related morbidity and mortality. UHI mitigation efforts have increasingly relied on wisely designing the urban residential environment such as using high albedo rooftops, green rooftops, and planting trees and shrubs to provide canopy coverage and shading. Thus, strategically designed residential rooftops and their surrounding landscaping have the potential to translate into significant energy, long-term cost savings, and health benefits. Rooftop albedo, material, color, area, slope, height, aspect and nearby landscaping are factors that potentially contribute. To extract, derive, and analyze these rooftop parameters and outdoor landscaping information, high resolution optical satellite imagery, LIDAR (light detection and ranging) point clouds and thermal imagery are necessary. Using data from the City of Tempe AZ (a 2010 population of 160,000 people), we extracted residential rooftop footprints and rooftop configuration parameters from airborne LIDAR point clouds and QuickBird satellite imagery (2.4 m spatial resolution imagery). Those parameters were analyzed against surface temperature data from the MODIS/ASTER airborne simulator (MASTER). MASTER images provided fine resolution (7 m) surface temperature data for residential areas during daytime and night time. Utilizing these data, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to evaluate the relationships between residential building OPEN ACCESSRemote Sens. 2015, 7 12136 rooftops and their surface temperature in urban environment. The results showed that daytime rooftop temperature was closely related to rooftop spectral attributes, aspect, slope, and surrounding trees. Night time temperature was only influenced by rooftop spectral attributes and slope.

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Urban forestry and cool roofs: Assessment of heat mitigation strategies in Phoenix residential neighborhoods

Cited by 221 publications

References 48 publications

Hot playgrounds and children's health: A multiscale analysis of surface temperatures in Arizona, USA

Hot playgrounds and children's health: A multiscale analysis of surface temperatures in Arizona, USA

A Global Geospatial Ecosystem Services Estimate of Urban Agriculture

Rooftop Surface Temperature Analysis in an Urban Residential Environment

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