[Back]

K. Kiesel, M. Vuckovic, A. Mahdavi:
"The Urban Heat Island Phenomen - one of the challenges of today´s and tomorrow´s cities";
in: "Forschungstag 2016", Fakultät für Arch & RPL (ed.); issued by: Tu Wien, Fakultät für Architektur und Raumplanung; Forschungstag 2016, Wien, 2017, ISBN: 978-3-902707-32-1, 36 - 37.

The Urban Heat Island Phenomenon is one of the biggest challenges of our time. An increasing number of people live in cities and are therefore influenced by the urban microclimate. Furthermore, the UHI effects are directly related to (and worsened by) the climate change phenomena. Life in urban settlements is significantly influenced by the urban climate. Higher air temperatures, especially during the summer season, may have major implications for local air quality, heat stress, morbidity, mortality and furthermore can lead to higher energy demand due to an increased use of air-conditioning. Further research and planning efforts are needed to better understand and address the effects of urban microclimate, its variance, and its development. Generally speaking, the undesired thermal circumstances in the urban environment are caused in part by certain properties of the materials used for construction of buildings, pavements, and roads, the urban layout and structure including topography, morphology, density, and open space configuration, as well as processes and activities such as transportation and industry. In this light, a recently-finished EU Central-Europe project `Development and application of mitigation and adaptation strategies and measures for counteracting the global urban heat islands phenomenon´ (Central Europe Program, No 3CE292P3) was initiated in order to create a comprehensive body of knowledge on the UHI phenomenon in the Central European region. The UHI project comprises the efforts of eight Central-European cities, namely Budapest, Ljubljana, Modena, Padua, Prague, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Warsaw. This project for the first time investigated the urban climate on an European scale bringing together numerous different research areas such as building physics, urban planning, and meteorology, in order to establish a transnational network among scientific experts and local municipalities concerned with the extend of the UHI phenomenon.
Within the framework of this project, Vienna University of Technology - Department of Building Physics and Building Ecology, along with other project partners, undertook comprehensive efforts to address the need for effective means of evaluating and mitigating UHI effects. Thereby, the ramifications of potential mitigation measures in selected areas of each partner city were investigated using advance numeric modelling tools and techniques. The idea was to select areas that are either targeted for the implementation of mitigation measures or represent likely candidates for such measures. The envisioned mitigation measures were virtually implemented in the simulation environment and corresponding output was generated. Thereby, the base case conditions were compared with the predicted post-mitigation circumstances to provide a quantitative basis for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the envisioned mitigation measures. The results showed that different interventions in the urban context display different levels of impact. The summary of envisioned mitigation measures thus represent a valuable repository and a useful guiding tool, which - if deployed within a larger holistic and well-established evaluation process - could positively inform the state of knowledge of the stakeholders and support decision making. The underlying approach, which was collectively developed within the framework of the project, is based on meticulous scientific assessment using systematic methodology and state of art advanced tools. We thus believe that, beyond the results and insights already generated, this approach shall continue to enhance the general urban climate awareness in the Central European countries and beyond.

(not available, english version) The Urban Heat Island Phenomenon is one of the biggest challenges of our time. An increasing number of people live in cities and are therefore influenced by the urban microclimate. Furthermore, the UHI effects are directly related to (and worsened by) the climate change phenomena. Life in urban settlements is significantly influenced by the urban climate. Higher air temperatures, especially during the summer season, may have major implications for local air quality, heat stress, morbidity, mortality and furthermore can lead to higher energy demand due to an increased use of air-conditioning. Further research and planning efforts are needed to better understand and address the effects of urban microclimate, its variance, and its development. Generally speaking, the undesired thermal circumstances in the urban environment are caused in part by certain properties of the materials used for construction of buildings, pavements, and roads, the urban layout and structure including topography, morphology, density, and open space configuration, as well as processes and activities such as transportation and industry. In this light, a recently-finished EU Central-Europe project `Development and application of mitigation and adaptation strategies and measures for counteracting the global urban heat islands phenomenon´ (Central Europe Program, No 3CE292P3) was initiated in order to create a comprehensive body of knowledge on the UHI phenomenon in the Central European region. The UHI project comprises the efforts of eight Central-European cities, namely Budapest, Ljubljana, Modena, Padua, Prague, Stuttgart, Vienna, and Warsaw. This project for the first time investigated the urban climate on an European scale bringing together numerous different research areas such as building physics, urban planning, and meteorology, in order to establish a transnational network among scientific experts and local municipalities concerned with the extend of the UHI phenomenon.
Within the framework of this project, Vienna University of Technology - Department of Building Physics and Building Ecology, along with other project partners, undertook comprehensive efforts to address the need for effective means of evaluating and mitigating UHI effects. Thereby, the ramifications of potential mitigation measures in selected areas of each partner city were investigated using advance numeric modelling tools and techniques. The idea was to select areas that are either targeted for the implementation of mitigation measures or represent likely candidates for such measures. The envisioned mitigation measures were virtually implemented in the simulation environment and corresponding output was generated. Thereby, the base case conditions were compared with the predicted post-mitigation circumstances to provide a quantitative basis for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the envisioned mitigation measures. The results showed that different interventions in the urban context display different levels of impact. The summary of envisioned mitigation measures thus represent a valuable repository and a useful guiding tool, which - if deployed within a larger holistic and well-established evaluation process - could positively inform the state of knowledge of the stakeholders and support decision making. The underlying approach, which was collectively developed within the framework of the project, is based on meticulous scientific assessment using systematic methodology and state of art advanced tools. We thus believe that, beyond the results and insights already generated, this approach shall continue to enhance the general urban climate awareness in the Central European countries and beyond.