Estimating the Urban Heat Island Effect in the City of Guayaquil.

 

Authors

Palme, Massimo

Format

Article

Status

publishedVersion

Description

Urban Heat Island effect (UHI) is a very important study aspect regarding the future of tropical cities. Guayaquil is the most populated city of Ecuador and leads on the river Guayas, close to the Pacific Ocean, in a very hot humid climatic emplacement. The climate of Guayaquil affects drastically the built environment, especially regarding the cooling demand of buildings and the related electricity consumption. In the future, cooling needs are expected to increase: predictions by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) suggest that the atmosphere temperature will rise up to 6 ?C to the end of the century in this region, so the temperatures are expected to increase in at least 4 ?C to the middle of the century and 8?C to the end of the century. Moreover, all the South-American countries are experimenting a period of fast economic growth and people are continuously increasing their acquisitive power. Today, only a 15% of the built environment of Guayaquil uses air-conditioning to cool inside, but it is very probable that in the future there will be a significant increase in the use of active systems by the people in their homes and workplaces. This work explores the urban heat island effect on the city. The paper explores the spatial distribution of the city in order to parametrize the urban geometry and materials properties, then a set of simulations is done by using the Urban Weather Generator (UWG) tool. Eight spatial configurations are simulated, representing the different city sectors and a map of the urban parameters is generated and correlated with the heat island expectations. Materials properties of construction elements commonly used in Ecuador are tested to obtain emissivity and reflectivity coefficients to be inserted in the UWG. Results confirm the existence of a UHI effect in Guayaquil, with variable intensities within specific emplacements. Simulations results suggest a probable increase in urban temperatures between 6 and 10 degrees Celsius, considering the combined effect of global warming and urban heat island.

Publication Year

2016

Language

eng

Topic

URBAN HEAT ISLAND
ECUADOR
URBAN WEATHER GENERATOR

Repository

Repositorio SENESCYT

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http://repositorio.educacionsuperior.gob.ec/handle/28000/4094
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Massimo_Palme/publication/308255787_Estimating_the_Urban_Heat_Island_Effect_in_the_City_of_Guayaquil/links/57df28c808ae5292a37f4afd.pdf?origin=publication_list

Rights

openAccess

License

openAccess