DOCSLIB.ORG

Measures to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Measures to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands QUARTERLY REVIEW No.18 / January 2006 6 Measures to Mitigate Urban Heat Islands YOSHIKA YAMAMOTO Environment and Energy Research Unit “the urban heat island effect as air pollution” 1 Introduction in August 2001, mitigation measures suddenly emerged as a political issue. In response, the The “Outline of the Policy Framework to Cabinet decided in March 2002 to “set up a Reduce Urban Heat Island Effects”, which general task force comprising the ministries was laid down in March 2004, stipulates that concerned and draw up guidelines to implement lifestyles must be reformed as part of measures comprehensive approaches to urban heat island to mitigate urban heat islands. One of these mitigation” in accordance with the “Three-Year measures is the promotion of the wearing of Program for Promoting Deregulation (Revised).” light clothing in summer. For instance, with the The Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry Kyoto Protocol now taking effect, the Ministry of of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the the Environment encouraged its staff members Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and to participate in the “Cool Biz” dress code the Cabinet Secretariat subsequently established campaign by not wearing neckties or jackets in the Inter-Ministry Coordination Committee to summer beginning in June 2005. This enabled Mitigate Urban Heat Islands (hereinafter “the the temperature of its air-conditioned workplaces Liaison Council”) in September 2002. This was to be kept at 28°C. In addition, an annual event followed by the establishment of the “Outline dubbed the “Grand Water Sprinkling Campaign” of the Policy Framework to Reduce Urban Heat was carried out across the country on August 10. Island Effects” in March 2004. Urban heat island mitigation measures are making The “Guideline of Measures to Prevent Global steady headway. Aside from lifestyle issues, Warming” was laid down in 2002. It aims to however, another perspective from which to “promote global warming mitigation measures in debate urban planning itself is necessary. order to achieve a 6% reduction in greenhouse Japan’s approaches to the urban heat island gas emissions.” One of these measures concerns effect trace their origins to the 1980s, when it the “promotion of comprehensive approaches to became a topic of study in the field of physical the urban heat island effect.” science, including meteorology and geography. The “Basic Policies for Urban Renaissance,” That is where most early progress was made. adopted by the Cabinet in July 2002, frames In the 1990s, the phenomenon also became urban heat island mitigation measures as a means a research topic in engineering fields such to revitalize urban areas. Heat island mitigation as architecture and civil engineering, which measures have thus become a major political issue addressed urban heat and energy problems. from an urban renewal perspective. Study of the urban heat island effect from an The urban heat island effect was thus originally urban planning perspective thus began [1]. studied in the fields of physical science and Political approaches, meanwhile, have also made engineering, from which various preventive significant headway over recent years, playing policies gradually developed. It is too complex catch-up with more-established approaches. a problem to be solved by a single ministry, as is When the Ministry of the Environment defined acknowledged in the establishment of the Liaison 65 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY TRENDS QUARTERLY REVIEW No.18 / January 2006 Council. Furthermore, it is an interdisciplinary subject that involves meteorology, geography, 2-1 Status and causes architecture, civil engineering and the like. of the urban heat island effect A range of studies is underway to elucidate (1) Status of the urban heat island effect the effect, develop and implement mitigation (i) Long-term upward trend in average measures, and so on. There is a pressing need temperatures to mobilize a wide range of findings from The third Intergovernmental Panel on these studies to come up with comprehensive Climate Change (IPCC) report*1 points out that mitigation measures. average global temperature rose by some 0.6°C This article explores urban heat island during the 20th century. Six big cities in Japan mitigation measures primarily from the (Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, and perspective of urban planning. Fukuoka) have seen average temperature rises of 2-3°C. The urban heat island effect has been more pronounced in these cities than have changes due 2 The Urban heat island effect to global warming. Urbanization involves concentration of population, loss of natural surface, and expansion (ii) Sweltering nights and rising daytime of living space above and below ground. All of temperatures these factors alter the balance of radiation, heat, Temperatures are on the rise, particularly in big and water, generating a climate typical of urban cities. In fact, the temperature now stays above areas[2]. 30°C for longer, over a larger area (see the upper The urban heat island effect is a phenomenon and middle color maps on the front cover and whereby cities become warmer than the Figure 1). Accordingly, the number of sweltering surrounding suburbs. In other words, there is a nights is increasing. temperature difference between cities and the areas surrounding them. The effect was first (2) Causes of the urban heat island effect observed in London and other European cities The following four factors are the major causes in the 1830s, followed by big cities such as New of the urban heat island effect[5] (see Figure 2). York and Chicago in the USA. The phenomenon is now becoming a major problem in Asia as (i) Increased anthropogenic heat release well. Indeed, the urban heat island effect exists • Heat release resulting from energy wherever there are large cities. While elimination consumption in urban areas of the phenomenon is not feasible, the key issue (ii) Changes in surface cover is how best to mitigate it. A variety of factors, • Reduced surface evapotranspiration such as surface cover, anthropogenic heat release, capacity due to less green area and urban characteristics including geographic • The heat storage effect of construction features and climatic conditions interact with materials such as concrete and asphalt one another to create the effect. Its generating (iii) Urban structure mechanism is complex and yet to be fully • Heat stagnation due to densely packed elucidated. Currently, therefore, each mitigation buildings measure, such as energy-saving technologies and • Expansion of urban areas greenification, is being separately implemented[3]. (iv) Other Under these circumstances, elucidation of each • The greenhouse effects of fine-particulate contributing phenomenon to establish a scientific air pollution in the urban atmosphere background and development of quantitative assessment techniques are imperative. 66 67 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY TRENDS QUARTERLY REVIEW No.18 / January 2006 Figure 1 : Distribution of cumulative hours with temperatures above 30°C (Tokyo) (see the color maps on the front cover) Based on data provided by AMeDAS (July to September in 1981 and 1999). Cumulative hours with temperatures above 30°C are tabulated, and their distribution is shown by means of an isochrone. Source: Reference[4] Figure 2 : Causes of the urban heat island effect Source: Reference[6] (2) Winter impacts 2-2 Impacts of the urban heat island effect Inversion layers*3 form by radiative cooling*2 on (1) Summer impacts clear, calm winter nights. Ascending air currents Urban areas are becoming uncomfortable created by warm urban areas are trapped under places to live because of higher temperatures inversion layers, forming mixed layers (dust during daytime and an increasing number domes * 4 ) that exacerbate air pollution (see of sweltering nights. Higher temperatures Figure 3). boost demand for air conditioning, resulting in increased energy consumption. They also (3) Other contribute to localized torrential downpours and Changes in surface cover cause decreased the production of photochemical oxidants. evaporation, making urban areas drier. 66 67 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY TRENDS QUARTERLY REVIEW No.18 / January 2006 Figure 3 : Atmospheric conditions inside and outside urban areas in winter (when inversion layers are formed) Source: Reference[4] encouraging building owners to adopt proactive 3 Measures to mitigation measures (see Figure 4.). In July 2005, mitigate urban heat islands the CASBEE-HI system to assess the overall environmental performance of buildings was 3-1 Status of urban heat island completed. CASBEE-HI is a tool for evaluating mitigation measures the effects of mitigation measures. It maintains a Since 2000, local governments made comfortable thermal environment in pedestrian remarkable strides in implementing systematic spaces and other areas inside buildings. It approaches to urban heat island mitigation uses a five-level rating system to assess the measures. Typical systems aim primarily environmental performance of buildings by to promote the greening of urban areas by evaluating reduction of thermal impacts on their mandating the promotion of greening, subsidizing surroundings. the cost of greening, and incentivizing rooftop In December 2004, the Urban Renaissance greening by granting higher floor-area ratios to Headquarters of the Cabinet Secretariat (headed buildings that implement it. by the Prime Minister) adopted the eighth Urban At the government level, in March 2002 the Renaissance Project: “Development of
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Challenge of Urban Heat Exposure Under Climate Change: an Analysis of Cities in the Sustainable Healthy Urban Environments (SHUE) Database
    climate Article The Challenge of Urban Heat Exposure under Climate Change: An Analysis of Cities in the Sustainable Healthy Urban Environments (SHUE) Database James Milner 1,*, Colin Harpham 2, Jonathon Taylor 3 ID , Mike Davies 3, Corinne Le Quéré 4, Andy Haines 1 ID and Paul Wilkinson 1,† 1 Department of Social & Environmental Health Research, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UK; [email protected] (A.H.); [email protected] (P.W.) 2 Climatic Research Unit, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK; [email protected] 3 UCL Institute for Environmental Design & Engineering, University College London, Central House, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0NN, UK; [email protected] (J.T.); [email protected] (M.D.) 4 Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +44-020-7927-2510 † On behalf of the SHUE project partners. Received: 31 July 2017; Accepted: 8 December 2017; Published: 13 December 2017 Abstract: The so far largely unabated emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are expected to increase global temperatures substantially over this century. We quantify the patterns of increases for 246 globally-representative cities in the Sustainable Healthy Urban Environments (SHUE) database. We used an ensemble of 18 global climate models (GCMs) run under a low (RCP2.6) and high (RCP8.5) emissions scenario to estimate the increase in monthly mean temperatures by 2050 and 2100 based on 30-year averages.
    [Show full text]
  • The Relationship Between Land Cover and the Urban Heat Island in Northeastern Puerto Rico
    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY Int. J. Climatol. 31: 1222–1239 (2011) Published online 19 April 2010 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/joc.2145 The relationship between land cover and the urban heat island in northeastern Puerto Rico David J. Murphy,a* Myrna H. Hall,a Charles A. S. Hall,a Gordon M. Heisler,b† Stephen V. Stehmana and Carlos Anselmi-Molinac a 301 Illick Hall, SUNY – College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA b U.S. Forest Service, 5 Moon Library, SUNY-ESF, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA c Physics Building, Marine Science Department, University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, 00681-9000 ABSTRACT: Throughout the tropics, population movements, urban growth, and industrialization are causing conditions that result in elevated temperatures within urban areas when compared with that in surrounding rural areas, a phenomenon known as the urban heat island (UHI). One such example is the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our objective in this study was to quantify the UHI created by the San Juan Metropolitan Area over space and time using temperature data collected by mobile- and fixed-station measurements. We also used the fixed-station measurements to examine the relationship between average temperature at a given location and the density of remotely sensed vegetation located upwind. We then regressed temperatures against regional upwind land cover to predict future temperature with projected urbanization. Our data from the fixed stations show that the average nighttime UHI calculated between the urban reference and rural stations ° ° (TCBD – rural) was 2.15 C during the usually wet season and 1.78 C during the usually dry season.
    [Show full text]
  • ALBEDO ENHANCEMENT by STRATOSPHERIC SULFUR INJECTIONS: a CONTRIBUTION to RESOLVE a POLICY DILEMMA? an Editorial Essay
    ALBEDO ENHANCEMENT BY STRATOSPHERIC SULFUR INJECTIONS: A CONTRIBUTION TO RESOLVE A POLICY DILEMMA? An Editorial Essay Fossil fuel burning releases about 25 Pg of CO2 per year into the atmosphere, which leads to global warming (Prentice et al., 2001). However, it also emits 55 Tg S as SO2 per year (Stern, 2005), about half of which is converted to sub-micrometer size sulfate particles, the remainder being dry deposited. Recent research has shown that the warming of earth by the increasing concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases is partially countered by some backscattering to space of solar radiation by the sulfate particles, which act as cloud condensation nuclei and thereby influ- ence the micro-physical and optical properties of clouds, affecting regional precip- itation patterns, and increasing cloud albedo (e.g., Rosenfeld, 2000; Ramanathan et al., 2001; Ramaswamy et al., 2001). Anthropogenically enhanced sulfate particle concentrations thus cool the planet, offsetting an uncertain fraction of the anthro- pogenic increase in greenhouse gas warming. However, this fortunate coincidence is “bought” at a substantial price. According to the World Health Organization, the pollution particles affect health and lead to more than 500,000 premature deaths per year worldwide (Nel, 2005). Through acid precipitation and deposition, SO2 and sulfates also cause various kinds of ecological damage. This creates a dilemma for environmental policy makers, because the required emission reductions of SO2, and also anthropogenic organics (except black carbon), as dictated by health and ecological considerations, add to global warming and associated negative conse- quences, such as sea level rise, caused by the greenhouse gases.
    [Show full text]
  • Fact Sheet on the Kyoto Protocol
    The U.S. View FACT SHEET ON THE KYOTO PROTOCOL t a conference held December 1–11, 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, the Parties to A the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to an historic Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by harnessing the forces of the global marketplace to protect the environment. Key aspects of the Kyoto Protocol include weather, either of which could spike emissions targets, timetables for industrial- emissions in a particular year. ized nations, and market-based measures for meeting those targets. The Protocol • The first budget period will be makes a down payment on the meaning- 2008–2012. The parties rejected bud- ful participation of developing countries, get periods beginning as early as but more needs to be done in this area. 2003, as neither realistic nor achiev- Securing meaningful developing country able. Having a full decade before the participation remains a core U.S. goal. start of the binding period will allow more time for companies to make the transition to greater energy efficiency Emissions Targets and/or lower carbon technologies. A central feature of the Kyoto Protocol is a set of binding emissions targets for • The emissions targets include all six developed nations. The specific limits major greenhouse gases: carbon diox- vary from country to country, though ide, methane, nitrous oxide, and three those for the key industrial powers of the synthetic substitutes for ozone-deplet- European Union, Japan, and the United ing CFCs that are highly potent and States are similar—8 percent below 1990 long-lasting in the atmosphere. emissions levels for the European Union, 7 percent for the United States, and 6 • Activities that absorb carbon, such as percent for Japan.
    [Show full text]
  • Emissions Gap Report 2018 © 2018 United Nations Environment Programme November 2018
    Emissions Gap Report 2018 © 2018 United Nations Environment Programme November 2018 ISBN: 978-92-807-3726-4 Job number: DEW/2210/NA This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part and in any form for educational or non-profit services without special permission from the copyright holder, provided acknowledgement of the source is made. UN Environment would appreciate receiving a copy of any publication that uses this publication as a source. No use of this publication may be made for resale or any other commercial purpose whatsoever without prior permission in writing from UN Environment. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Communication Division, UN Environment, P. O. Box 30552, Nairobi 00100, Kenya. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of United Nations Environment Programme concerning the legal status of any country, territory or city or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. For general guidance on matters relating to the use of maps in publications please go to http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/english/htmain.htm Disclaimers Mention of a commercial company or product in this document does not imply endorsement by UN Environment or the authors. The use of information from this document for publicity or advertising is not permitted. Trademark names and symbols are used in an editorial fashion with no intention on infringement of trademark or copyright laws.
    [Show full text]
  • Assessing Urban Heat Island Mitigation Using Green Roofs: a Hardware Scale Modeling Approach
    ASSESSING URBAN HEAT ISLAND MITIGATION USING GREEN ROOFS: A HARDWARE SCALE MODELING APPROACH By William C. Pompeii II A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Geography and Earth Science and the Graduate Council in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geoenvironmental Studies SHIPPENSBURG UNIVERSITY Shippensburg, Pennsylvania May, 2010 DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND EARTH SCIENCE SHIPPENSBURG UNIVESITY Upon the recommendation of the chairperson of the department of Geography and Earth Science this thesis is hereby accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geoenvironmental Studies Thesis Committee __________________________________________________ ________________ Committee Chairperson Date Dr. Timothy W. Hawkins __________________________________________________ ________________ Committee Member Date Dr. Claire Jantz __________________________________________________ ________________ Committee Member Date Dr. George Pomeroy Table of Contents List of Figures iii List of Tables v ABSTRACT vi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Statement of Problem 1 Chapter 2: Review of Literature 3 2.1 Background 3 2.1.1 Urban Heat Island 3 2.2 Green Roofs 6 2.2.1 Origin and Types 6 2.2.2 Benefits of Green Roofs 7 2.3 Chicago-A Case Study City 9 2.3.1 Green Roof Case Study-Chicago City Hall Building 13 2.4 Methods of Study the Urban Heat Island and Benefits of Green Roof Mitigation 15 2.4.1. Urban Heat Island Methods-Dataloggers 15 2.4.2 Green Roof effects on Urban Heat Island
    [Show full text]
  • Urban Surface Temperatures and the Urban Heat Island Effects
    NASA Climate Change Research Initiative Applied Research STEM Curriculum Portfolio CCRI Unit Plan NASA Science Mission Directorate | Earth Sciences Division NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | Office of STEM Engagement Unit Title: Urban Surface Temperatures and the Urban Heat Island Effects Overarching Investigative Research Question: How does Urban Heat Island contributes to climate change? NASA STEM Educator / Associate Researcher: Alejandro Mundo NASA PI /Mentor: Dr. Christian Braneon NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies | Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI)) 1 Matthew Pearce | Education Program Specialist | GSFC Office of STEM Engagement I. Executive Summary Cities that are growing at a fast pace are notable entities of innovation and city development. As population keeps growing in urban settings, the need to understand urban climates has awakened much interest and discussion among our society. Due to urbanization, land surface temperatures are intensifying with much warmer temperatures than surrounding areas, making cities experience the Urban Heat Island phenomenon. This unit plan called “Urban Surface Temperatures and the Urban Heat Island Effects“ has the purpose to educate students how climate is changing in urban settings and produce mitigation solutions for city environmental concerns through the use of groundbreaking technology and authentic science learning experiences. Students are exposed to real-world scientific experiences like the exploration of climate simulation models, global temperature profiles and climate change evidence analysis during the first lesson. Later, they learn about remote sensing and investigate instruments on climate satellites. Students are exposed to remote sensing imagery analysis and dive into the Urban Heat Island effects on the third lesson.
    [Show full text]
  • Radiative Cooling New Opportunities & Enabling Technologies
    Radiative Cooling New Opportunities & Enabling Technologies Aaswath P. Raman, Ph.D. [email protected] Research Associate, Fan Group, Ginzton Laboratory ARPA-E Alternative Power Plant Cooling Workshop, May 12, 2014 1 An opportunity to tap an underutilized resource Use the cold of outer space to cold outer space! (-80°C ! -270°C)! radiatively pump heat from the ground through sky access New: Possible at all hours of the day through photonic design of thermally emissive layers Heat Atmosphere Thermal Meaningful cooling power that EM Waves scales with area: analogies to PV Radiative Cooling Surface! 2 I. INTRODUCTION Radiative cooling is a technique that exploits a natural transparency window for electro- magnetic waves in the Earths atmosphere to transport heat from terrestrial objects into cold space. As a result, objects with the appropriate radiative properties can passively cool them- selves down to temperatures well below the ambient. The atmospheric transparency window is found in the 8-13µm wavelength range, as shown in Fig. 1, and fortuitously overlaps with the blackbody spectralAtmospheric radiance corresponding to typical terrestrialtransmittance temperatures (0-50C), thus enabling objects at these temperatures to emit more power than they absorb. 1 Atmospheric Transmission Radiative cooling is enabled by 0◦C blackbody 50◦C blackbody an atmospheric transparency 0.5 window between 8 – 13 μm 0 7 9 11 13 15 Blackbody spectrum of typical λ [µm] Earth temperature objects overlap with window FIG. 1. Atmopheric Transmissioncold in the outer zenith space direction! vs. wavelength; normalized blackbody spectral radiance of a 0◦C and a(upper 50◦C blackbody atmosphere) emitter ! Varies with cloud cover, Prior work in radiative cooling has almost entirely focused on nighttime cooling,geographic where location and one aims to maximize emission in the atmospheric transparency window, without having to contend with solar radiation.
    [Show full text]
  • Spatiotemporal Variability of Urban Heat Island: Influence of Urbanization on Seasonal Pattern of Land Surface Temperature in the Metropolitan Region of Belém, Brazil
    Scientific Article doi: 10.1590/2175-3369.013.e20200260 Spatiotemporal variability of urban heat 3369 island: Influence of urbanization on - seasonal pattern of land surface temperature in the Metropolitan Region ISSN 2175 of Belém, Brazil Variabilidade espaço-temporal das ilhas de calor urbano: Influência da urbanização no padrão sazonal da temperatura da superfície terrestre na Região Metropolitana de Belém, Brasil Licenciadosob uma Licença Creative Commons Jefferson Inayan de Oliveira Souto [a] , Julia Clarinda Paiva Cohen [a] [a] Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de Geociências, Belém, PA, Brasil How to cite: Souto, J. I. O., & Cohen, J. C. P. (2021). Spatiotemporal variability of urban heat island: Influence of urbanization on seasonal pattern of land surface temperature in the Metropolitan Region of Belém, Brazil. urbe. Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana, v. 13, e20200260. https://doi.org/10.1590/2175-3369.013.e20200260 Abstract Cities experience the extensive urban heat island effect (UHI), which continue to pose challenges for humanity's increasingly urban population, where tropical cities have experienced a continued and rapid urbanization process in the past few decades. We present the evolution of surface UHI and its controlling factors in the Metropolitan Region of Belém, over the last 16 years (2003–2018), which has experienced unique consolidated economic growth and urban transformation under wet equatorial climate. We incorporate MODIS and Landsat satellite data and evaluate statistical techniques for estimates the variation in the land surface temperature (LST) during two seasons: wet season and dry season. Our result revealed that the regions of fast urbanization resulted in a decrease of normalized difference vegetation index and increase of LST.
    [Show full text]
  • Global Climate Coalition Primer on Climate Change Science
    ~ ~ Chairman F.SOHWAB Poraohe TECH-96-29 1st Viae C".lrrn.n C. MAZZA 1/18/96 Hyundal 2nd Vic. Ohalrrnan C. SMITH Toyota P S_cret.ry C. HELFMAN TO: AIAM Technical Committee BMW Treasurer .,J.AMESTOY Mazda FROM: Gregory J. Dana Vice President and Technical Director BMW c ••woo Flat RE: GLOBAL CLIMATE COALITION-(GCC)· Primer on Honda Hyundal Climate Change Science· Final Draft lauzu Kia , Land Rover Enclosed is a primer on global climate change science developed by the Mazda Mlt8ublehl GCC. If any members have any comments on this or other GCC NIB.an documents that are mailed out, please provide me with your comments to Peugeot forward to the GCC. Poreche Renault RolI&-Aoyoe S ••b GJD:ljf ""al'"u .z.ukl Toyota VOlkswagen Volvo President P. HUTOHINSON ASSOCIATION OF INTERNATIONAL AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURERS. INC. 1001 19TH ST. NORTH. SUITE 1200 • ARLINGTON, VA 22209. TELEPHONE 703.525.7788. FAX 703.525.8817 AIAM-050771 Mobil Oil Corporation ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND SAFETY DEPARTh4ENT P.O. BOX1031 PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08543-1031 December 21, 1995 'To; Members ofGCC-STAC Attached is what I hope is the final draft ofthe primer onglobal climate change science we have been working on for the past few months. It has been revised to more directly address recent statements from IPCC Working Group I and to reflect comments from John Kinsman and Howard Feldman. We will be discussing this draft at the January 18th STAC meeting. Ifyou are coming to that meeting, please bring any additional comments on the draft with you. Ifyou have comments but are unable to attend the meeting, please fax them to Eric Holdsworth at the GeC office.
    [Show full text]
  • Ocean Acidification
    Ocean acidification: Obligations under international and regional treaty law Candidate number: 8023 Submission deadline: 1 December 2018 Number of words: 17.996 Table of contents 1 INTRODUCTION - THE PROBLEM OF OCEAN ACIDIFICATION .................. 1 1.1 Methodology, structure and legal sources used ................................................................ 2 1.2 The science behind ocean acidification and the problems repercussions ......................... 3 1.2.1 Scientific background of ocean acidification ...................................................... 3 1.2.2 Artificial contribution to ocean acidification ...................................................... 4 1.2.3 Consequences of ocean acidification for the ocean as an ecosystem .................. 4 1.2.4 Consequences of ocean acidification on particularly sensitive areas .................. 5 1.2.5 The problem of inconsistent results .................................................................... 6 1.2.6 The effects of ocean acidification on human life ................................................ 6 1.2.7 Implications ......................................................................................................... 7 2 ANALYSIS OF THE OBLIGATIONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL TREATY LAW IN REGARD TO OCEAN ACIDIFICATION .................................................. 9 2.1 Ocean acidification under the International Climate Change Regime ............................. 9 2.1.1 The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ... 9 2.1.2 Kyoto
    [Show full text]
  • Concentrated Radiative Cooling Arxiv:2010.02426V1 [Physics.App
    Concentrated Radiative Cooling Joseph Peoples,1 Yu-Wei Hung,2 Xiangyu Li,1 Daniel Gallagher,1 Nathan Fruehe,1 Anil Yuksel,3 James Braun,1 Travis Horton,2 Xiulin Ruan1∗ 1School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA, 2School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA, 3IBM Corporation, Austin, TX, 78758, USA ∗To whom correspondence should be addressed; E-mail: [email protected]. A fundamental limit of current radiative cooling systems is that only the top surface facing deep-space can provide the radiative cooling effect, while the bottom surface cannot. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a concept of \concentrated radia- tive cooling" by nesting a radiative cooling system in a mid-infrared reflective trough, so that the lower surface, which does not con- tribute to radiative cooling in previous systems, can radiate heat to deep-space via the reflective trough. Field experiments show that the temperature drop of a radiative cooling pipe with the trough arXiv:2010.02426v1 [physics.app-ph] 6 Oct 2020 is more than double that of the standalone radiative cooling pipe. Furthermore, by integrating the concentrated radiative cooling sys- tem as a preconditioner in an air conditioning system, we predict electricity savings of > 75% in Phoenix, AZ, and > 80% in Reno, NV, for a single-story commercial building. 1 Introduction In 2018, 9.3% of the total generated electricity in the United States went to space cooling and refrigeration of commercial buildings, equating to 164.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emission, just for commercial cooling (1).
    [Show full text]