The paper studies the urban heat island and its spatial patterns in the city of Zaragoza (Spain), as well as the main factors that influence it. A database of air temperatures was created and integrated in a Geographic Information System, in order to create a map of the measures taken during 27 days. The relation between the spatial characteristics and the main urban-geoographic factors is analyzed, as well as the variations in the localization of the maximum air temperatures depending of surface winds.

The social and economic importance of the urban phenomenon and its influence on the quality of life account for its privileged place among the topics of investigation in the field of urban environmental management. In Zaragoza, the systematic study of urban climate has focused on the urban heat island: frequency and intensity of the phenomenon, spatial configuration, maximum air temperatures localization and analysis of the historical variations.

The standarized thermical information was integrated in a GIS (ArcView GIS 3.2). In order to achieve this integration, the data was interpolated to make it continous and comparable to other territorial features. Several functions were established to relate the spatial variance of temperatures between observation points.With the standarized continous information obtained in the 27 days of observation the spatial characteristics of Zaragoza urban heat island were analyzed.

The study of Zaragoza heat island shows that urban activity causes a perceptible variation in cimate, which is significatively different of its rural environment. Besides, the local configuration of topography, edification density, vegetation cover and reflectivity of materials cause internal changes that generate diverse climatic spaces. Of these factors, topography is the most influential in the distribution of temperatures.

Departamento de Geografía. Universidad de Zaragoza
Spain
José M. Cuadrat Prats (Main researcher), tel. +34 976 76 10 00 (Ext. 3922)

08/11/2006

08/11/2006

José M. Cuadrat Prats, Sergio M. Vicente-Serrano y Miguel A. Saz Sánchez

research

Urban Policy > Urban environment > Land use

Urbanisation