Intensity of urban heat islands in tropical and temperate climates

Abstract

Nowadays, most of the Earth's population lives in urban areas. The replacement of vegetation by buildings and the general soil sealing, associated with human activity, lead to a rise in cities temperature, resulting in the formation of urban heat islands. This article aims to evaluate the intensity and the hourly maintenance of the atmospheric heat islands in two climates: one tropical (Presidente Prudente, Brazil) and one temperate (Rennes, France) throughout 2016. For this, air temperature and hourly averages were measured and calculated using both a HOBO datalogger (U23-002-protected under the same RS3 brand) and weather stations Davis Vantage PRO 2. The daily evolution of the heat islands presented characteristics that varied according to the hours and seasons of the year. For both Rennes and Presidente Prudente, the largest magnitudes occurred overnight, being more greatly expressed in the tropical environment and during the driest months (winter in the tropical city and summer in the temperate one). The variability of synoptic conditions from one month to another also leads to a great heterogeneity of UHI intensity throughout the year.