Heat islands in different urban atmospheric layers

influence of urban geometry on the local microclimate

Abstract

The urban environment is highly complex and heterogeneous, resulting from the constant interaction of the different agents and individuals who produce and occupy it. In this context, the climatic conditions associated with the city also become complex and are directly affected by the spatial forms which compose the urban area. Thus, there is a necessity for developing studies which allows the correlation between the morphological aspects of the city and the local atmospheric dynamics. In the context of this analysis, we departed from the hypothesis that the vertical projection of urban forms implies a distinct thermal configuration from that observed in horizontal buildings. In this regard, the present article aims to analyze the city of Presidente Prudente – localized in the west of the state of São Paulo, Brazil – through a fragment of the local urban ambience, looking to identify different air heating patterns in a vertical profile within the same area of the city. Therefore, temperature sensors were installed near the surface and another atop a building. In this manner, it was identified the formation of urban heat islands, through the comparison of the urban data with a nearby rural location, next to the urban fabric. With the results, suggestions were made for the production of the local urban space.