A Comprehensive Analysis of Urban Heat Island Determination Methods

Abstract

Population density in urban centers causes an increase in the amount of construction and energy consumption. In addition to being the areas where human activities that cause climate change are most intense, cities are also the areas where the negative effects of climate change are observed most intensely. One of the most obvious effects of climate change observed in urban areas is the formation of urban heat island, which occurs due to reasons such as the increase in the number of structural areas and impermeable surfaces, the amount of energy consumption, the number of vehicles and people, the decrease in open green areas, and the lack of planning to increase the ecosystem service quality in the planning of these areas. While the formation of urban heat island negatively affects the thermal comfort of the citizens in the summer months, it also increases the amount of energy used for cooling indoors, and this situation causes a vicious circle when the directly proportional relationship between energy consumption and heat island formation is considered. Urban heat islands have been the subject of many different occupational disciplines, and various methods have been tried for the determination of heat island formation. In this study, different methods used in urban heat island determination studies were examined, the accuracy of the applied methods in the context of the study area scale, and the advantages and disadvantages of each method were discussed comparatively, considering today's technological possibilities.