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Increased urban land use and occupation alters the local thermal field resulting in the development of warmer regions known as urban heat islands (UHIs). [8] An urban heat island is a phenomenon where these surface temperature deviations and air in the lowest levels of the atmosphere are concentrated in urban areas and those immediately ...
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 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.
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 ]
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.
Electricity accounted for more than 20% of worldwide final energy consumption in 2022, with oil being less than 40%, coal being less than 9%, natural gas being less than 15%, biofuels and waste less than 10%, and other sources (such as heat, solar electricity, wind electricity and geothermal) being more than 5%. [10]
Urban metabolism (UM) is a model to facilitate the description and analysis of the flows of the materials and energy within cities, such as undertaken in a material flow analysis of a city. It provides researchers with a metaphorical framework to study the interactions of natural and human systems in specific regions. [ 1 ]
Other solutions include increasing access to quality health care for poor people and people of color, preparedness planning for urban heat island effects, identifying neighborhoods that are most likely to be impacted, investing in alternative fuel and energy research, and measuring the results of policy impacts. [48]