TY - JOUR

T1 - Mitigating urban heat with optimal distribution of vegetation and buildings

AU - Tuczek, Matthias

AU - Degirmenci, Kenan

AU - Desouza, Kevin C.

AU - Watson, Richard T.

AU - Yigitcanlar, Tan

AU - Breitner, Michael H.

N1 - Funding Information: We thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and valuable comments. This research was supported by a grant from the Institute for Future Environments (IFE) at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Matthias Tuczek gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) as part of the PROMOS scholarship program. An earlier version of the paper was presented at a workshop of the Special Interest Group in Green Information Systems (SIGGreen) of the Association for Information Systems (AIS).

PY - 2022/7

Y1 - 2022/7

N2 - The impact of climate change on cities poses a growing global threat, which is exacerbated by the urban heat island (UHI) effect. The optimal distribution of vegetation and buildings in urban areas is critical to control the UHI effect and stabilize long-term temperature changes. In this article, we develop an optimization model to maximize revenue while limiting UHI intensity under several restrictions. We run simulations in two urban areas in Brisbane, Australia to test the model's theoretical predictions. Our results show that a revenue increase by AUD 4.32 billion in Brisbane City and by AUD 1.19 billion in Hamilton involves an increase of the maximum temperature difference between the developed and undeveloped sites from 4 to 5° C through an increase of buildings and thus a decrease of porosity and an increase of population density.

AB - The impact of climate change on cities poses a growing global threat, which is exacerbated by the urban heat island (UHI) effect. The optimal distribution of vegetation and buildings in urban areas is critical to control the UHI effect and stabilize long-term temperature changes. In this article, we develop an optimization model to maximize revenue while limiting UHI intensity under several restrictions. We run simulations in two urban areas in Brisbane, Australia to test the model's theoretical predictions. Our results show that a revenue increase by AUD 4.32 billion in Brisbane City and by AUD 1.19 billion in Hamilton involves an increase of the maximum temperature difference between the developed and undeveloped sites from 4 to 5° C through an increase of buildings and thus a decrease of porosity and an increase of population density.

KW - Brisbane

KW - Climate change

KW - Optimization

KW - Revenue maximization

KW - Urban heat island mitigation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131719461&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.uclim.2022.101208

DO - 10.1016/j.uclim.2022.101208

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85131719461

VL - 44

JO - Urban Climate

JF - Urban Climate

SN - 2212-0955

M1 - 101208

ER -