Friday, November 5, 2010

UKM Journal

Integration of Characteristics of Urban Construction Materials: The Way for Mitigation of Urban Heat Island

P.Shahmohamadi, A.I. Che-Ani and M. F.I. Mohd-Nor

Urban heat island effect is due to many factors such as inappropriate urban construction materials, resulting from the production and accumulation of heat, increasing of energy consumption and pollution in the urban mass. Different characteristics of materials, albedo, emissivity and porosity, can impact on formation of UHI. Using low albedo, emissivity and porosity materials in urban areas can extremely increase the effect of UHI. It means the quality of materials is in indirect ratio to UHI which by increasing the quality of materials, the effects of UHI is decreased and vice versa. To achieve this aim, this paper literally explores the conceptual framework to show the correlation between UHI and urban construction materials and discuses about the integration of characteristics of construction materials which can mitigate UHI effects.

Keywords: Albedo, Emissivity, Porosity, Urban Construction Material, Urban Heat Island.