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Assessment tool for London's heat island

Gauthier, S; (2008) Assessment tool for London's heat island. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London). Green open access

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Abstract

The urban environment presents distinctive features in relation to its surrounding rural areas. These include changes in ground surface, wind patterns and energy balance, which create a specific micro climate, the urban heat island. First described by L. Howard in his book The climate of London' (1818), this phenomenon reduces the "cost of cold" in winter while in summer, overheating will cause water restriction, increase in energy use and health issues. Demographic and climate change will only amplify these consequences. This dissertation explores London's statutory framework and its agenda with regards to overheating. In practice, it is difficult to assess the value of the recently introduced National Indicator 188 and the London Plan Policy 4A.10 as there is no statutory target or framework in place, only guidance. Moreover, the current assessment tools used in London do not take into account the urban heat island effect. Only the Japanese model, CASBEE-HI, seems to provide detailed indicators and weighting systems relating to this issue. This dissertation uses three categories of buildings as case studies: dwellings built before and after 1995 and offices built after 1995. This review highlights poor performances of the buildings studied and the limitations of the Japanese model. From these results a new assessment tool is developed, the "UHI checklist". The same case studies are assessed using the "UHI checklist" and show that this tool is able to produce meaningful results, propose adaptation strategies and assist planners implementing policies.

Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Title: Assessment tool for London's heat island
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
Additional information: Thesis digitised by ProQuest.
UCL classification:
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1567817
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