Evaluating the effects of increasing of building height on land surface temperature

Abstract

Global warming has obtained more and more attention because the global mean Land surface temperature has increased since the late 19th century. Land surface temperature is a significant parameter in urban environmental analysis. Production of anthropogenic heat for cooling systems, lighting and etc. led to have serious impacts on the thermal environmental quality such as quality of the air, increase in temperature, energy consumption and finally the formation of urban heat island. Increased urban population and increase in the height of buildings, particularly in metropolitan areas, have led to vast changes in the urban geometry, amount of released heat, pollution rate, and meteorological parameters. All these factors contribute to the occurrence of heat island phenomenon in urban areas. his study combines the techniques of simulation and geographic information system to detect the spatial variation of Land surface temperature and determine its quantitative relationship with building height and density based on simulation modeling for the Narmak neighborhood of Tehran. For this purpose, data related to Haft Hoz Square located in the Narmak neighborhood were obtained, simulated and analyzed using Envi-met. Results indicate that comparison on the simulation between the existing conditions and proposed scenario area showed that the daily average air temperature differed by 1.38 °C. This increase in the building height will possibly increase land surface temperature and lead increase intensity of urban heat in the study area.