What controls the magnitude of the daytime heat sink in a desert city?

Mitigating Urban Heating in Dryland Cities: A Literature Review

“…Cities in dry regions such as the Mediterranean have historically relied on shading from buildings for human comfort (Martinelli, Lin, and Matzarakis 2015). Nassar, Blackburn, and Whyatt (2016, 2017) found that increased building height, density, and shade are all correlated with reduced urban temperature in Dubai, although the reduced sky view associated with urban density also leads to greater heat retention and warmer nighttime temperatures. Gober et al (2012) used an urban energy balance model for Phoenix to show that replacing impervious surfaces with buildings achieved similar benefits to vegetation in terms of nighttime cooling (relative to hardscape) without the increased water consumption.…”

“…Fan and Myint et al (2015) Parks in dryland cities typically produce park cool island effects Bowler et al 2010The cooling impact of parks extends well beyond their borders Dimoudi and Nikolopoulou (2003) and Akbari et al (2016) Built form Shade-producing built form (close buildings with narrow streets) can cool dryland cities Emmanuel and Fernando (2007) and Nassar et al (2016Nassar et al ( , 2017) Street canyons (narrow streets and tall buildings) reduce daytime air temperatures through shade and reduced sky view Johansson (2006) Street canyons lead to warmer nighttime temperatures since heat escapes more slowly with reduced sky view Whyatt (2016, 2017) and Jamei et al (2016) Replacing pavement with buildings leads to lower nighttime temperature (Phoenix)…”

Análisis regional de las islas de calor urbano en la Argentina

“…Otros factores pueden contribuir a la formación de IFU al reducir el impacto de la urbanización en la TST a pesar de tener poca superficie urbana vegetada (Imhoff et al 2010). Ciertas propiedades de las urbanizaciones reducen la absorción de radiación solar al emplear materiales con alta reflectancia, baja conductividad térmica y alto albedo (Erell and Williamson 2007), además de que la presencia de construcciones altas puede generar sombra y reducir la energía que alcanza la superficie (Kato et al 2010;Nassar et al 2017).…”

Sprawl or compactness? How urban form influences urban surface temperatures in Europe

“…Less temperature reduction by vegetated areas is one reason why urban cool islands (UCIs -denoting that urban areas are cooler than their surroundings), have been observed in arid regions [10,29,64,16,18]. In addition, it has been shown that increased building heights and densities in dry regions can reduce daytime temperatures, particularly through shading [13,4,42]. The latter finding and a potentially reduced cooling provided by vegetation in certain regions raise the question of whether and where sprawl would indeed lead to reduced urban heat.…”