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A definition of urban heat island is: "The relative warmth of a city compared with surrounding rural areas." [14]: 2926 This relative warmth is caused by "heat trapping due to land use, the configuration and design of the built environment, including street layout and building size, the heat-absorbing properties of urban building materials, reduced ventilation, reduced greenery and water ...
The climate in urban areas differs from that in neighboring rural areas, as a result of urban development. Urbanization greatly changes the form of the landscape, and also produces changes in an area's air. The study of urban climate is urban climatology. In 1950 Åke Sundborg published one of the first theories on the climate of cities. [1] [2]
The urban environment has two atmosphere layers, besides the planetary boundary layer (PBL) outside and extending well above the city: (1) The urban boundary layer is due to the spatially integrated heat and moisture exchanges between the city and its overlying air. (2) The surface of the city corresponds to the level of the urban canopy layer.
High density and urban heat island effect are examples of weather changes that impact cities due to climate change. It also causes exacerbating existing problems such as air pollution, water scarcity, and heat illness in metropolitan areas.
Increases in urbanization lead to increases in consumption, which puts increased pressure on surrounding rural lands. [36] The outward spread of urban areas can also take over adjacent land formerly used for crop cultivation. [36] Urbanization additionally affects land cover through the urban heat island effect.
Unequal threat of heat stress in urban environments is often correlated with differences in demographics, including racial and ethnic background, income, education level, and age. [1] While the general impacts of urban heat inequity depend on the city studied, negative effects typically act on historically marginalized communities. [ 1 ]
The urban heat island is a phenomenon in which central regions of urban centers exhibit higher mean temperatures than surrounding urban areas. [39] Much of this effect can be attributed to low city albedo , the reflecting power of a surface, and the increased surface area of buildings to absorb solar radiation. [ 21 ]
Water usage is one of the main environmental impacts of electricity generation. [7] All thermal power plants (coal, natural gas, nuclear, geothermal, and biomass) use water as a cooling fluid to drive the thermodynamic cycles that allow electricity to be extracted from heat energy.