Short-term strategies to reduce the harmful effects of heat islands in urban areas

During the life of the planet Earth, there has been a lot of climate change and, currently, indicators show that the climate change has been accelerated due to the human intervention. Expansion of urbanization, reduction of green areas and consumption of more fossil fuels contribute to the generation of heat islands over cities which increases the temperature, as much as several degrees centigrade, therefore making the cities warmer than the surrounding areas. This phenomenon occurs when a large percentage of natural vegetation is destroyed and replaced by buildings, roads and other urban facilities. These are less reflective. They absorb and keep the solar energy and cause the occurrence of heat island phenomenon therefore making a great temperature difference between inside the cities and the surrounding areas. Generally, factors such as natural shape of cities, urban structure, geography, meteorology, size, geometry, population and urban density, thermal properties, vegetation and the used building materials are among the factors influencing occurrence of the heat island phenomenon in cities among which the building materials used in walls of the buildings, requires special attention. Low reflection materials accelerate the occurrence of the heat island phenomenon in cities. Therefore, this article aims to, through understanding the accelerative factors such as reflection, absorption, emission and release of carbon, provide a list of suitable building materials for cities and future buildings in order to reduce the destructive effects of heat islands in cities.