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Fieldwork Urban Heat Islands

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Introduction The aim of this Fieldwork is to investigate urban heat islands (UHI) in S�o Paulo's CBD1 and analyze to what degree "Parque da Luz" influences on them. According to David Waugh, urban heat island is a metropolitan area that is warmer than its surroundings. It persists during the night because of the availability of heat stored in the ground during the day-time hours, and during winter because of the use of heaters. Other reasons are Changes in the thermal properties of surface materials and Lack of evapotranspiration in urban areas. These materials (concrete and asphalt) have significantly different heat capacity, thermal conductivity and surface radioactive properties (albedo2 and emissivity3) than the surroundings. The lack of vegetation in urban areas eliminates the natural cooling effects of shading and evapotranspiration. Tall buildings within urban areas provide multiple surfaces for the reflection and absorption of sunlight, and it inhibits cooling by convection. Besides these effects, UHI can produce secondary effects like altering wind patterns, the development of clouds and humidity. According to Magda Lombardo, ever since S�o Paulo started growing, the average temperature went up 1,5�C. The lack of vegetation and parks is one of the biggest reasons for urban heat island growing in S�o Paulo. ...read more.


Presentation and analysis of the Data To have better results to answer my Research Question and prove that my hypothesis was right or not, I will organize the data collected in graphs and tables on this chapter. The table below is the average of the most significant measurements collected during the fieldwork. With this table it is possible to observe the differences from the three places studied. "Esta��o da Luz" is the hottest place comparing to the other two, and "Parque da Luz" is colder. Table 1 - the average from different datas on the three places Place Parque da Luz Esta��o da Luz Esta��o J�lio Prestes Dry bulb temperature 24.7 26.0 25.8 Humid bulb temperature 20.6 23.3 22.1 Ground temperature 22.4 28.2 22.6 Atmospheric pressure 933.1 933.1 933.1 Car flux 0.1 21.4 108.5 Thermal sensation 23.0 24.8 23.7 Relative Humidity 77.1 81.3 72.6 Source: Fieldwork Author: Teresa P. Nogueira The graphs 1, 2 and 3 below are used to show the difference from the real temperature to the thermal sensation in each place studied. It is possible to notice that the thermal sensations in "Esta��o da Luz" and "Esta��o J�lio Prestes" are lower than the dry bulb temperature, around 2�C below. ...read more.


I think that to improve the data collection and the information, we should have more precisely tools to better measurements and results. We could also have more factors analyzed like the colour, materials of the constructions to see if they have a big influence on UHI. For example for measuring wind intensity we could have equipment, not just a table and our guessing. And also, for a climatology work to be valid the data needs to be collected for at least 30 years. If we were in more people we would not need to stop the measuring for one-hour lunch and we would be able to measure the data from other places as well, to have more examples of distances and temperatures. 1 CBD is the Central Business District where contains the major shops and offices. Large cities may have more than one (Waugh, David - 1995). 2 Albedo is the capacity of a surface material to reflect incident solar radiation. (http://www.epa.gov/hiri/resources/faq.html). 3 The ratio, of the radiation emitted by a surface to the radiation emitted by a blackbody at the same temperature (http://www.epa.gov/hiri/resources/faq.html). ?? ?? ?? ?? 1 ...read more.

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