Monitoring the Urban Heat Island Effect and the Efficiency of Future Countermeasures

Evaluting the impact of Urban Heat Island countermeasures on saving energy, improving thermal comfort, reducing pollutant emissions, and improving health

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Recipient

Berkeley, CA

Recipient Location

9th

Senate District

14th

Assembly District

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$500,000

Amount Spent

closed

Completed

Project Status

Project Result

Having successfully engaged the LA Unified School District in siting of research grade weather stations and developed a mobile monitoring platform for monitoring urban heat island (UHI) effects through strategically charted transects, the team completed its collection and analysis of empirical data portraying urban heat island phenomena in the Los Angeles basin. A final report passed the rigorous peer review process associated with California's Fourth Climate Change Assessment. New findings include identification of dominant determinants of urban heat island impacts in the San Fernando Valley and downtown Los Angeles study areas, namely low vegetation canopy cover and low albedo, respectively. Another key contribution was development of a methodological framework for siting weather stations, monitoring urban heat islands, and empirically substantiating strategies to address UHI.

The Issue

The prevalence of dark, dry surfaces and human-caused heat in cities creates Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) with elevated air temperatures. UHI countermeasures, such as reflective surfaces and urban vegetation, can save cooling energy, improve thermal comfort in summer, reduce pollutant emissions, and improve health. These measures may also help counter potential microclimate, emissions, and air-quality impacts of climate change. However, there has been little empirical validation of on-the-ground benefits of countermeasures. This study gathers high-resolution, real-world data to clarify determinants of UHI effects and sets the stage for improving quantification of countermeasures.

Project Innovation

This project evaluates the distribution of air temperatures within urban heat islands in California and enhances the foundation for location-specific assessments of mitigation strategies. In collaboration with local governments and organizations in the Los Angeles Basin, the research team designed and implemented siting of fixed high-quality monitoring stations, supplemented with mobile monitoring and data from existing weather-station networks. This research assesses spatial and temporal variations in near-surface air temperature and recasts these observations for use in validating and calibrating the climate/meteorological models applied to assess potential benefits of urban heat island countermeasures throughout the state.

Project Benefits

Research improves on-the-ground benefits from urban heat island (UHI) mitigation by verifying relationships between the UHI effect and land use/land cover; using these measurements to calibrate and validate models that estimate benefits of mitigation measures; establishing a baseline of today's UHI effect against which the efficacy of future UHI mitigation (cool community) programs can measured; and leaving in place a set of research-grade monitors that can be used to track changes in the UHI effect.

Greater Reliability

Reliability

Extensive prior research indicates that urban heat island (UHI) mitigation attainable through cool community strategies can save electricity, reduce peak power demand, lower strain on the electrical grid, and increase reliability

Key Project Members

Project Member

Ronnen Levinson

Staff Scientist and Leader, Heat Island Program

Subrecipients

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University of Southern California

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Altostratus, Inc.

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Match Partners

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Altostratus, Inc.

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Contact the Team

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