Mitigation Techniques

High urban temperatures are observed during the last 100 years due to heat island phenomenon. The effect is intensively pronounced even in small sized cities by temperature differences between rural and urban environment reaching even 6 oC. In order to keep the phenomenon under control, mitigation strategies, especially concerning cool roofs has been established. Under hot and arid climates roof temperatures reach almost 70 oC and about 50% of heat enters into buildings through roof slab.  

This research studies the possibility of introducing combinations of specific mitigation techniques for the urban heat island effect (UHI) in Athens, Greece. A variety of factors, such as surface cover, dense traffic, anthropogenic heat release and urban characteristics including geographic features and climate conditions interact with one another to create UHI, which is becoming increasingly evident also due to the changing climate, which in this region is expected to increase the duration of hot spells and the frequency of heat waves.