Turning down the heat: How to mitigate urban heat island effects on the University of Waterloo Campus

The focus of this report is determining practical mitigation strategies for the urban heat island effect on the University of Waterloo campus. An urban heat island is an air mass in an urban center that is warmer than the air in surrounding rural areas. Research for this report was based mainly on literature reviews. Primary data was also collected on the University of Waterloo campus to provide baseline data and to give meaning to what was found in the literature. Temperature differences resulting from shade provided by vines and trees, as well as rooftop temperatures were collected for the Environmental Studies building. This study found that trees and vines do not have an impact on decreasing air temperature; it was also confirmed that trees have a more profound effect than vines on creating cooler ambient air temperatures… For full text, please e-mail sustainability@uwaterloo.ca