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HEAT ISLAND REDUCTION STRATEGIES GUIDEBOOK
Impact/Purpose:
This guidebook aims to serve communities that are interested in learning about heat island issues and developing strategies and specific measures to mitigate heat island impacts. This guidebook intends to do the following: (1) Assist stakeholders in understanding what heat islands are, what causes them, and the benefits and costs of mitigation. (2) Identify strategies for avoiding, reducing, or eliminating heat islands. (3) Explain how the strategies work with examples drawn from throughout the United States. (4) Provide specific guidance for those who wish to implement heat island mitigation in their own communities. State and local energy and environmental officials are the key audience for this guidebook, although non-governmental organizations (e.g., tree planting and environmental groups), manufacturers and distributors of cool products, facility managers, urban planners, architects, developers, and researchers interested in reducing surface and air temperatures may also consider this guidebook an important resource.
Description:
This heat island reduction strategies guidebook provides an overview of urban heat islands and steps communities can take to reduce them. In particular, this guidebook provides background basics and answers the questions: “What is a heat island?” “What are its impacts?" "What are its causes?" "What are the benefits of reducing heat islands, and how can they be reduced?" This guide serves as a technical resource on key heat island reduction strategies, which include increasing urban vegetative cover and installing cool roofs and cool pavements. For each strategy, the guidebook provides a description of how it works, factors to consider, benefits and costs of implementation, examples and tools as sources for more information. The guide also provides some information on taking action - implementing a heat island reduction project or program. Lastly, the appendices to the guidebook include a glossary, discussion of energy and radiation balances, background on study methods, and a bibliography with more than 1,000 references.