Urban heat island in Thessaloniki city, Greece: a geospatial analysis Ourania Eftychiadou SID: 3304150003 SCHOOL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Science (MSc) in Energy Building Design OCTOBER 2017 THESSALONIKI – GREECE -i- Urban heat island in Thessaloniki city, Greece: a geospatial analysis Student Name Ourania Eftychiadou SID: 3304150003 Supervisor: Prof. Dionysia Kolokotsa Supervising Committee Prof. Agis Papadopoulos Members: Dr. Georgios Martinopoulos SCHOOL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Science (MSc) in Energy Building Design OCTOBER 2017 THESSALONIKI – GREECE -ii- «10.8.1986 Ἀληθινό εἶναι ὅ,τι τό ξαναβρίσκουμε γιατί μᾶς χρειάζεται» (Κωνσταντινίδης Α., «Η Αρχιτεκτονική της Αρχιτεκτονικής», 2004:267) -iii- Abstract The present master thesis discusses the issue of urban heat island in Thessaloniki city, in Greece, using a geospatial approach to the analysis of the phenomenon. The UHI phenomenon is known almost from the beginning of cities’ urbanization. What encourages scientists in a global scale to select it as a study subject is that, the phenomenon becomes more pronounced at these years due to climate change and strong urbanization on a global scale. At the same time, there is a keen interest in the quality of peoples’ life in cities in relation to environmental and energy issues that are directly connected to the environment protection and the conservation of natural resources. Thessaloniki is a big city for Greece and a reference point for the Balkan space but for this work is the field of the UHI phenomenon research. The study was conducted using air temperatures and applying the Kriging Ordinary interpolation technique in ArcGIS. The results showed that the city faces the phenomenon of particular intensity during the summer months, but also it has a strong presence during the winter months. The chargeable event of the phenomenon as demonstrated by this study is the existing urban density, the height of the buildings and the land uses, as residence, retail market and central city’s function. Thus, through ArcGIS tools, these urban parameters reclassified and "added" to produce an image that depicts the areas that are most likely to experience the effect of the “warm district”. Afterwards, the correlation between the generated image that display potential event UHI in Thessaloniki city and the Kriging Ordinary interpolation temperatures images verify both processes as well. The results are positive as they have high identification rate. Hence, the research illustrated the effect of “thermal areas” in Thessaloniki and found what are the areas within the main city are more likely to develop the UHI phenomenon. Words Keys: Urban Heat Island, Thessaloniki, Interpolation method, ArcGIS, Urbanization, Building density and height, Urban land uses. -iv- Acknowledgements I would like to thank first and foremost my supervisor, Prof. Denia Kolokotsa, who oversaw this diploma thesis and she encourage me to do this work with case study the city of Thessaloniki. I would like to express my warm thanks and gratitude to Mr. Alexander Kalathas, GIS technician and employee in Data Marathon Systems, who offered his valuable knowledge on ArcGIS with great patience. At last but not least, I would like to thank my brother, Eftychios Eftychiadis and my best friend Ιrene Simitlioti for their support to this exertion. Ourania Eftychiadou Architect Engineer November 30, 2017 I hereby declare that the work submitted is mine and that where I have made use of another’s work; I have attributed the source(s) according to the Regulations set in the Student’s Handbook. -v- Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... v Contents ....................................................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................ 8 1.1 State of the art ..................................................................................................................... 8 1.2 Methodology and Tools .................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2: .............................................................................................................................. 12 Theoretical Approach of the Urban Heat island phenomenon .................................................... 12 2.1 The city today .................................................................................................................... 13 2.2 Thermal comfort outdoors................................................................................................. 14 2.3 Urban climatology ............................................................................................................. 15 2.4 The historical evolution of the city's climate change ........................................................ 19 2.5 The phenomenon of the thermal urban isle ....................................................................... 21 2.6 Identification of the phenomenon in urban areas .............................................................. 25 2.7 Urban thermal plumes and climate change ....................................................................... 29 2.8 City as a storage heater ..................................................................................................... 34 2.9 The City under the influence of the UHI phenomenon ..................................................... 39 2.10 Thermal isle effect and Greek city .................................................................................. 46 2.11 Mitigation Strategies of UHI ........................................................................................... 52 2.12 GIS Methods ................................................................................................................... 58 2.13 Choosing the right interpolation method ......................................................................... 60 2.13.1 Deterministic Methods ............................................................................................. 61 2.13.2 Probabilistic methods ............................................................................................... 65 2.13.3 Evaluation of interpolation methods ........................................................................ 67 CHAPTER 3: .............................................................................................................................. 69 The city of Thessaloniki .............................................................................................................. 69 3.1 Thessaloniki geographically .............................................................................................. 70 3.2 Thessaloniki’s Urban Planning history ............................................................................. 70 3.3 Population and housing developments .............................................................................. 76 3.4 Thessaloniki’s climate data ............................................................................................... 79 3.5 Characteristics of Thessaloniki’s urban space .................................................................. 81 CHAPTER 4: .............................................................................................................................. 87 -6- Data and Methods ....................................................................................................................... 87 4.1 Data Collection and study area selection .......................................................................... 88 4.2 GIS Process ....................................................................................................................... 92 4.2.1. Find cartographic backgrounds ................................................................................. 92 4.2.2. Introduction of Meteorological Stations and Data in ArcGIS ................................... 94 4.2.3. Application, Evaluation and Selection of interpolation method ............................... 95 CHAPTER 5: .............................................................................................................................. 99 The Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 99 5.1 Qualitative analysis - Descriptive data statistics ............................................................. 100 5.2 Spatial Analysis: Results and discussion ........................................................................ 105 Performing Interpolation Kringing Ordinary using average monthly temperatures ......... 110 Performing Interpolation Kringing Ordinary using Minimum temperatures per month ... 115 Performing Interpolation Kringing Ordinary using Maximum temperatures per month .. 120 5.3 Urban form’s cartographic analysis ................................................................................ 124 Correlation between the surface image of UHI phenomenon occurrence in Thessaloniki and the