Three decades of urban heat islands and mitigation technologies research

Abstract Although the urban heat island (UHI) phenomena phenomenon has was been documented over a century ago, the effect of the urban heat island on urban climate and environment during the summer have only been the focus of research over the last three decades. One main characteristics of the recent research has been to evaluate the summertime effects of UHI on energy use, air pollution, outdoor ambient temperature, and citizen health. The second aspect of the recent research has been the development and evaluation of materials to counter the effects of summertime UHI. This paper provides a selective representation (by topic) review of the research on the development and evaluation of mitigation measures, including: cool roofs, cool pavements, and urban vegetation.