Back
 JEP  Vol.6 No.4 , April 2015
The Effects of Road and Other Pavement Materials on Urban Heat Island (A Case Study of Port Harcourt City)
Elenwo Ephraim Ikechukwu*
Show more
Abstract: Urban centers are consistently exhibiting higher temperature than its surrounding suburban rural areas. The large amount of heat generated from urban structures such as road materials and pavement materials and other anthropogenic heat sources are the main causes of Urban Heat Island (UHI). The sources of data for this research included primary and secondary sources. Other techniques employed for data collection were direct measurement and readings on the road and pavement materials. The research found out that, there was consistency in rising temperature at different time of the day by the different road and pavement materials. Asphalt has the greatest effect of increasing the urban temperature four degrees higher, followed by concrete, three degree rise in temperature, and earth (ordinary ground) by two degree rise and vegetation (grass) by one degree rise in temperature. The overall effect on the residents of the study area ranges from increase in hotness of the day; 44.6% respondents agrees; while 34.3% says it affects the ambient air quality of the area, and other effects such as increased ground level ozone, suffocation, sleeplessness and restlessness as a result of excessive high temperature especially at night are identified in this paper. The research recommends the review or redesigning of the entire Port Harcourt city Master Plan to make provision for creation of more green areas rather than pavements and concreted areas to reduce the effects of (UHI) and ultimately improve the comfort and living conditions of the people in a the garden city Port Harcourt.
Keywords: Effects, Road and Pavement Materials, Urban Heat Island, Residents, Port Harcourt
Cite this paper: Ikechukwu, E. (2015) The Effects of Road and Other Pavement Materials on Urban Heat Island (A Case Study of Port Harcourt City). Journal of Environmental Protection, 6, 328-340. doi: 10.4236/jep.2015.64033.
References

[1]   Mabojunje, A.L. (1974) Cities and African Development. University Press, Ibadan, 255.

[2]   Paulsen, A. (2000) Satellite-Derived Urban Heat Islands from Three Coastal Cities and the Utilization of Such Data in Urban Climatology. International Journal of Remote Sensing.

[3]   Okereke, P. (2008) Climate Change the Scientific Basis; Adapted from IPCC Working Group I, UNEP Report (2007).

[4]   Rosenfeld, A.H., Romm, J.J., Akabari, H. and Pomerantz, M. (1998) Communities: Strategies for Heat Island Mitigation and Smog Reduction. Energy and Building, 28, 51-62.

[5]   Berkely, L. (2011) National Laboratory, Urban Heat Island Group. Lawrence-Berkeley Laboratory.

[6]   Wikipedia (2009) Implications of Temporal Change in Urban Heat Island Intensity Observed at Georgia Stations, Geographical Research Letters, 34, L01175.

[7]   Block, A. (2008) National Laboratory. High Temperatures.

[8]   Ren, G.N., Chu Z.Y, Chen, Z.H. and Ren, Y.Y. (2007) Implications of Temporal Change in Urban Heat Island Intensity Observed at Beijing and Wuhan Stations. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, Article ID: 105711.

[9]   Oluwamno, S. (2006) Intensity and Form of the Urban Heat Island in Barcelona, Adapted from Moreno-Garcia, C.M. Cited in Research Gate, Abstract.

[10]   Kalnay, C. (2003) Rapid Urbanization Warming China’s Climate’s Faster than Other Areas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

[11]   Winston, T.L. (2011) The Barrow of Urban Heat Island Study: Soil Temperatures and Active Layer Thickness. K.M Hintel University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati.

[12]   Deanna, C. (2014) Humid Cities Are Worse than Urban Heat Island than Dry Cities: Earth Sky Org.

[13]   Hansen, J., Ruedy, R., Sato, M., Imhoff, M., Lawrence, W. and Easterling, D. (2001) A Closer Look at United States and Global Surface Temperature Change. Journal of Geophysical Research, 106, 23947-23963.

[14]   Schaller, S. (2008) Landscapes Representations and the Urban Rural Dichotomy in Empirical Urban Heat Island Literature.

[15]   Kalnay, E. and Cai, M. (2008) Impact of Urbanization and Land Use Change on Climate. Nature, 423, 528-531.

[16]   Lee, H.-Y. (1993) An Application of NOAA AVHRR Thermal Data to the Study of Urban Heat Island. Atmospheric Environment Part B: Urban Atmosphere, 27, 1-13.

[17]   Camilloni, I. and Barros, V. (1997) On the Urban Heat Island Effect Dependence on Temperature Trends. Climate Change, 37, 665-681.

[18]   Ren, E.Y. (2008) Urban Climate Change, UCC Research Network Group, Earth Institute Columbia University. uccrn.org.

[19]   Geoff, C. (2008) Tornado Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Ontario Region Client Services Environment Canada.

[20]   Encyclopedia (2009) Urban Heat Island. National Education Geographic. Com.

[21]   Stewart, R. (2011) Member of Research Group on Heat and the City. www.heat and city.org.uk.

[22]   Ogionwo, W. (1979) Social Survey of Port Harcourt. Heinemann Educational Publishing Ltd., Ibadan, 350.

[23]   Yamane, T. (1967) Statistics: An Introductory Analysis. 2nd Edition, Harper and Row, New York.

[24]   National Bureau of Statistics, NBS (1991) Nigerian Population Statistics.

[25]   National Population Commission (2012) Census and Base Line Data. Abuja.

 
 
Top