Thermal effect of urbanization on São Vicente Island, SP Erika Kyushima Solano, Mohamed Ezz El-Din Mostafa Habib

Abstract

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) diagnosis has shown to be an important instrument for planning and management the urban space, since it can offer subsidies to design cities to be more thermally comfortable. The objective of the present study was to analyze the influence of the urban structure on the formation of microclimates or UHIs by means of temperature analyzes. Two methodologies were applied for collecting data: by mobile transect (west-east axis of the Island), points of fixed measurements with volunteers covering the study area. Calculations of Height/Width Ratio and Sky View Factor (H/W and SVF) and were also conducted the observation of the Arboreal Factor (FArb) to evaluate the thermal pattern in different points of the Island. FArb did not present significant differences, being of low UHI characterization capacity. The H/W presented the highest inverse correlation with the temperatures, being an index that assists by being of quick observation through the urban volumetry. A max intensity UHI of 6.7 °C was observed. Urban planning of cities should take into account the need to maintain the volumetry of buildings in order to maintain adequate SVF and H/W to have more efficient natural temperature changes.