The temperature of urban areas in Hong Kong has been increasing in recent years and this is the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Apart from causing the rise of temperature in urban areas, UHI effect also induces some undesirable impacts to Hong Kong citizens who are living in the urban areas. We shall never underestimate the potential dangers caused by the UHI effect and we should treat it more seriously. This paper will give a brief introduction on UHI effect, its influence and the possible measures that can deal with it.
WHAT IS URBAN HEAT ISLAND (UHI) EFFECT?
Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect describes predominately at night, the temperature difference between the urban areas and the rural areas due to urbanization. This effect is particularly obvious at night because the temperature in the rural areas drops very quickly while the temperature of the city drops very slowly at night. Before we discuss the UHI effect, we should first understand why there is such a temperature difference?
Reasons For The Occurrence Of The UHI Effect
First, the buildings in the urban areas have a larger heat capacity than that in the rural areas. Hence the buildings in the urban areas store more heat energy. Therefore at night the buildings in the urban areas will be cooled down much slower. Second, the buildings in the urban areas are often very tall, which will limit the heat loss to the space. Therefore, the urban areas are much hotter than the rural areas.
Also, large amount of waste heat are produced from air-conditioning, vehicles and burning fuels, which will lead to temperature increase in the urban areas. The densely developed urban areas have lower wind speed. Hence, less heat can be carried away. In addition, in the rural area, there are ...
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...US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Science Department, said NASA and the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention are jointly working on a project to use remote sensing data for estimating airborne particulate matter over the Atlanta, Georgia Metropolitan Area.
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An evening field trip was also arranged during the two-day workshop for the participants to observe and experience first-hand the effects of UHI in Hong Kong.
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The EPA classified the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. region (including Alexandria) as a severe non-attainment area for the 1-hour ozone standard. Particulate matter that remains suspended in the air and consists of solid particles or liquid droplets. PM emissions include everything from carbon to dust. The greatest threat to public health are those particles small enough (PM2.5) to be inhaled into the deepest parts of the lung. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448005/
The country Maldives is a string of beautiful islands that can be found just southwest of India. The problem with this is that the islands are surrounded by the Indian Ocean and the sea level is rising because of global warming and the islands are no higher than eight feet above sea level. There is an overwhelming consensus amongst scientist that human activities from countries around the world are primarily responsible for global warming due to the use of fossil fuel, pollution, and deforestation. These activities contribute to excessive fluorinate, nitrous, methane, chlorofluorocarbon, and carbon dioxide gases being emitted into the atmosphere. These emissions contribute largely to the greenhouse gases which are the cause of global warming. The effects of global warming are; record high temperatures, glaciers melting, and sea levels rising. Even though the effects of global warming will eventually be felt by everyone, it will however be felt by low-lying islands like Maldives first, threating their very existence. As the ocean slowly consumes the islands the islanders will be subject to economic hardship, civil conflict, and displacement.
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a change in the water cycle. Some places may experience more rain. Warmer temperatures will
There are two kinds of factors why rural people seek for urban life. The first one is urban pull factor. They dream for higher wages, better housing and utilities, better school and hospital, more jobs opportunity, and more experience that they can get it all from a living in big cities as they think. The second one is urban push factor. We know that most of rural areas people are farmers. There’,s not much else to do anymore in the village but wait for harvest time and without higher level of education, availability of media, or facilities that they need, they might be stimulated to move to urban areas.
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Many cities are currently affected by air pollution and Hong Kong is one example. Hong Kong’s air pollution level often exceeds the recommended air pollution level put out by the World Health Organization, and Hong Kong’s pollution index was at “very high” meaning that it exceeded 101, for 34% of the time (Hunt, 2011). Another example, when Hong Kong excee...
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Factories and transportation depend on huge amounts of fuel--billions of tons of coal and oil are consumed around the world every year. When these fuels burn they introduce smoke and other, less visible, by-products into the atmosphere.