Thermal Hot Spots in Cities as Hazards for Health Security: An Application for the Urban Agglomeration of Athens, Greece

Abstract

The thermal environment is a significant part of the urban environment; it is a reflection of the surface and atmosphere energy balance as well as of the energy fluxes in between the surface and the atmosphere close to the surface. The state of the thermal environment may be described with the use of air temperatures (at 2m from the ground) and land surface temperatures. The latter have a strong impact on the prevailing air temperatures locally, especially within urban areas.