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Evaluating Urban Heat Island and Climate Parameters

Country:Nigeria
Student(s):1. Ayomiposi Ojumu 2. Adedemeji Odunjo 3. Titilayo Olatunji 4. Esther Oluborode
Grade Level:Secondary School (grades 9-12, ages 14-18)
GLOBE Educator(s):Olawunmi Fasakin
Contributors:
Report Type(s):International Virtual Science Symposium Report
Protocols:Air Temperature, Clouds, Relative Humidity, Surface Temperature, Wind, Land Cover Classification
Presentation Poster: View Document
Language(s):English
Date Submitted:03/09/2024
The land transformation or land use effects such as human population growth, increase in physical buildings, road and bridge construction, development of factories and industrial estates in urban communities have impacted local or regional climates of most towns and cities. The transformation of cities into heat islands is one of the most important results of microclimate change. In this investigation, variations of some important climatic factors which are air temperature, surface temperature, ambient or room temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed, wind direction and wind gust were carried out with the view to observe microclimate changes. The infra-red thermometer (IRT) was used to measure the surface temperatures, the digital hygro-thermometer was used to record the relative humidity values, ambient and air temperatures, digital aneroid barometer was used to measure atmospheric pressure while digital anemometer app was used to measure wind speed, wind gust and wind direction. Cloud cover and surface conditions were also taken. Climatic data collected were uploaded to the GLOBE website via the GLOBE Observer app. The result of this investigation shows that the ambient temperatures range from 26.50 – 34.60 (OC), air temperature (27.10 – 36.40 OC), surface temperature (30.6 – 37.8 OC), humidity (10 – 35%), atmospheric pressure (756.3 – 760.6 mmHg and 1008.3 – 1014.0 mBar), wind speed (0.7 – 4.8 mps) and wind gust (1.0 – 5.4 mps). A maximum surface temperature of 37.8 OC was recorded. The sharp decreases and increases observed in the graphs, that is, variations observed, could be attributed to what is referred to as ‘energy budget’ effects or urban heat island characteristics. Furthermore, the thermal contrasts could be attributed to radiation influences and the surface thermal properties; and sensible heat density emanating from increased absorption of radiation and anthropogenic heat sources. A moderate correlation between surface temperature and air temperature (correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.2576, thus R = 0.5075) was established. This means that as air temperature increases, surface temperature also tends to increase changes showed the effect of heat island on urban climate parameters. The surface temperature across the sites suggests that this data set might be showing temperature variations that could be indicative of climate change within the short period of days. The findings of this study highlight the importance and necessity of considering urban heat island in understanding the local climate dynamics and how they might be influenced by or contribute to broader climatic trends. Keywords: Climate change, urban heat island effect (UHIE), urban microclimate, climatic parameters.



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