The urban heat island (UHI) is a metropolitan area with a relatively higher temperature compared to other surrounding rural areas. This relatively flat megacity houses more than ten million people with half of the population residing in the Seoul National Capital Area. The density of the city remains high with 17,288 people per square mile. With the climate on the border line of humid subtropical and humid continental, the metropolitan infrastructure and human activities causes the city to be more susceptible to climate change as well as the UHI effect. The city pertains specific interest as it is my home city, and I believe that this topic is worthy of investigation as South Korea’s rate of urbanization ranks 6th amongst Asian nations and due to such rapid urbanization, environmental problems emerged. As Seoul is an inland city, the intensity of UHI is large, and the biodiversity and population both face detrimental threats and disruptions due to the increase in temperature and formation of heat waves. Research discovered that annual maximum UHI intensity is strongest in Seoul is 3.34’C. In this research, the Urban Heat Island effect in Seoul, South Korea will be assessed at three distinct locations within the city; Chung Gye Chun, an artificial river, already known to have increased quality of air and lowered the temperature of nearby areas, Hannam Village The Hill, a residential location with abundance of roadside trees, bushes, artificial waterfall and grass with 3 to 6 story buildings surround the area, and Myeong Dong, one of the most crowded areas in Seoul, with buildings, high level of human concentration. By using both raw data and published resources of this field, this essay will evaluate the correlation between inf...
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...ts and roofs absorb sun’s energy, thus heating up the surface of an urban city, intensifying the UHI. The Berkeley Heat Island Team concluded that lighter asphalts, or ‘cool pavements’, reflected as much as 30 to 50 percent of sun light, which is significantly higher than 5 percent of new asphalt, and 10 to 20 percent of aged asphalt, and ‘cool roofs’ decrease temperature inside and outside the building. Such ‘Cool technologies’ also seem applicable to Seoul, in renewal and development of infrastructure continues. Government schemes to reduce energy consumption, initiate plans to raise efficiency of special areas, limit cars driving, encourage riding bicycles, create urban forests and gardens, rooftop greenery, and more. There are also methods of planning routes for wind, Blue Way, by planning infrastructures, to let wind swiftly flow in to decrease the heat.
Physical characteristics vary on every location of this planet. In order to understand this planet, an assessment of different environmental aspects needs to occur to understand these variations. The purpose of this lab report is to evaluate the similarities and differences between three locations: Sacramento, CA; Austin, TX; and Augusta, ME. In order to thoroughly examine these similarities and differences, an examination will be made on Earth-sun relationships, water balance budgets, climate patterns, vegetation, as well as landform development. These similarities and differences will be found by utilizing different methods and deriving data and conclusions empirically. All three of the cities focused on in this lab report in very different locations and therefore, it is expected that the concluded data will reveal many differences in the themes mentioned above.
The article has received a lot of attention due to the fact the author used information from other papers. He is not credited for his work. This article was created from data from previous papers written by other people, Tollefson was trying to explain the climate change in his own words. According to Tisdale, the climate change: the case of the missing heat article “offered as much misinformation as information.” It is discouraging for researchers like myself trying to learn, I do know not to trust the
On the basis of the evidence, it is accepted that climate change is occurring and the climate will change even further due to our fossil fuel based economy, the increasing number of people and their increasing wealth. The increase in greenhouse gases has already started having impacts on the climate, natural ecosystems and human societies. It is clear that the average surface temperatures have increased and it will continue to do as more carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere. The recent warming is unprecedented in both magnitude and speed. The projected warming for the 21st century will expect to create severe problems for natural ecosystems and human societies. Water resources are already suffering from increases stresses, and are likely to be reduced. This will inhibit the growth of crops and adversely affect other water uses such as water use for industries and the water supply for the human population. This will lead to more severe food shortages. The glaciers and ice sheets are already retreating, and will retreat more which will lead to changes in the total and annual cycle of river flow in some rivers, threatening water supplies further. Impact on the ecosystems will affect the distribution and productivity of plant and animal species and water supply. A loss of biodiversity is likely to be accelerated by climate change. There will be an increase in extreme weather events such as increases in flood magnitude and frequencies, increases in drought intensity, frequency and duration as evaporation rates will be greater. Higher average temperatures and possibly increased variability are likely to lead to increased frequency and severity of heat waves, causing additional deaths due to heat stress and vector-borne disea...
America’s per capita emission of heat-trapping gases is 21 tons. (“Ten Personal Solutions”) This is four times the global average and it is twice the standard living in similar countries, like France and Japan. This does not mean we should make drastic changes to show improvements. Making smart choices and understanding the areas that produce the most carbon emission, will show impact in reducing global warming. Transportation produces 30 percent of all U.S. global emission. Cars emit 24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. To reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being released, use cleaner fuels. Cleaner fuels produce fewer emission when being burn, like cellulosic biofuels. Cellulosic biofuels are alternatives that are produced from wood, grass, and inedible parts from a plant. Cellulosic biofuels can reduce emissions by 80 percent. (“Cars and Global Warming”) Another way to lower carbon emission is to upgrade infrastructures. According to David Biello, writer of the article, “10 Solutions for Climate Change,” wrote, “Buildings worldwide contribute around one third of all greenhouse gas emissions (43 percent in the U.S. alone).” (Biello) Investing thicker insulation can be money saving, but it is a long run because electric grids are in capacity tend to overload and the demand for power continues to rise. It takes a lot of cement, a source of greenhouse emission, to build buildings. The U.S. alone, releases 50.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in 2005 from cement production. (Biello) However, with energy-efficient buildings and an improved alternative of making cement, it can reduce greenhouse
Nowadays, climate change is became a major global issue which are affecting our life such as global warming ,mean sea level changing and more extreme weather events etc .According to the research of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 ,it showed that the global mean temperature rose by 0.74 °C during the hundred year period from 1906 to 2005. Between 1956 and 2005,the rising rate was 0.13°C per decade in this 50 years , nearly twice the rate in the past 100 years. Eight (2010, 2005, 2003, 2007, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2004) of the last ten years (from 2003 to 2012) rank among the 10 warmest years on record. It seems that climate change is potentially affecting our life.In fact,human activities and natural effect are the causes of climate change.Generally,most of the scientists and government agree that human activities is the main causes of climate change rather than natural causes.Therefore,this essay is going to discuss why human activities change the climate more seriously than natural effect.Afterward,I will also present some possible solution to reduce the climate change.
Global warming isn’t just the warming of earth’s atmosphere, but also weather conditions which are out of the ordinary. Many people agree global warming is happening, but they cannot agree on what is causing it. Some people reject the subject entirely saying the definition has changed too much over the years for comfort, but many say that it is a developing subject, one in which we do not know all of the details of yet. Many people believe that global warming is happening and is caused by humans and their lifestyle.
Buildings and the appliances alone account for 40 percent of America 's energy use and a third of our global warming emissions (NRDC). New buildings will need to meet new energy-efficiency standards that maximize energy savings and existing homes and commercial spaces can be improved to save energy through weatherizing and installing energy efficient heating, cooling and lighting systems. Ultimately, this will not only be energy efficient but also cost effective as well. In the bigger picture, retrofitting just 1 out of every 5 homes would avoid the need to build 13 mid-sized power plants every year. Retrofitting every house in the country would cut as much global warming pollution as taking a half a million cars off the road – and would save more oil and gas than we could extract from drilling in our coastal waters (NRDC). In the long run, creating more efficient communities through homes and buildings, we could cut back on the global warming issues we are dealing
Climate change is one of the biggest concerns for all nations across the globe over centuries. Climate shift refers to changes in patterns of weather which can be indicated through global warming, natural disasters and rise in sea level. There is a group of people, climate change skeptics, argue that climate change is not the result of human activity, meaning that it is naturally occurred. According to Slaght, this refers to internal factors which are the interaction between the atmosphere and ocean, and external factor, such as solar energy variations and volcanic eruption (John Slaght, 2009). However, most scientist claims that human also involve in this process. Consequently, this essay aims to discuss the impacts of greenhouse gases on climate, and then the contribution of human to climate change and lastly, some statistics about the effects of global warming.
Earth’s temperature is a vital aspect to Earth and its surroundings. The atmospheric temperature along with natural gases is the significant reasons why Earth inhabits all of its life. When there are changes that alter the natural affects of Earth’s environment there are factors that places the environment at risk. Increase warming of global temperatures account as a major concern of Earth’s surroundings. Global warming is a prominent source to consider how and why the environment, coastal zones, water resources, agriculture, food supply, and the health of human life have changed. There are numerous reasons why global warming has taken such effect over the environment, but natural causes and human activity are the main factors. The main purpose of this research is to provide factors of why global warming occurs and information as to why global warming has such an effect on Earth’s geologic events along with solutions to control global warming.
People say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Truth is, you know what you had, you just never thought you would lose it. The theme for the documentary “The Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore and the article “Warm, Warmer, Warmest” by Kristof, revolves around trying to bring awareness on global warming and how it is human responsibility to act in attempt to stop global warming as much as they are provoking it. The purpose for both is to attempt to wake up the people about global issues. Both of their audiences involve everyone considering that humans are responsible for the on-going issue. For “The Inconvenient Truth” the tone tends to be serious but not as aggressive as it was for “Warm, Warmer, Warmest”. Al Gore in his presentation
In a world where over half of the human population calls a city their home, the need to restructure and revolutionize the way we design our urban environments has never been greater. Currently, the notion that these vast metropolises of metal, concrete, and sludge could one day be fully realized pillars of sustainability is certainly laughable. However, when these same cities are constantly growing and multiplying across the globe, all the while using a greater and greater chunk of our planet’s energy, this impossible task becomes a necessary focus. To strive towards the closed, continuous loop of “true” sustainability could greatly alter the image of the modern city. Any improvement over the current state of urban affairs could carry weight, and even if that goal is not entirely fulfilled, the gained benefits would be immense.
Unusual weather conditions has sounded the alarm about the threat of climate change. It is not the short duration but it is a continuous problem which changes the weather conditions unnaturally in everywhere. The temperature has increased year to year and its growing rate is being expanded. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claimed that the global average surface temperature has risen about 0.6 °c from twentieth century and they foresaw that the temperature will increase 1.9 °c to 6.4°c in this century. This assumes that extreme weather events also appear in Hong Kong. According to the research by the Hong Kong Observatory , Hong Kong had a significant climate change over the past century. Nowadays, extreme rainfall events and steaming hot days are very often when frosty days are more infrequent. This reveals that climate change lead to abnormal and extreme weather events that we cannot adapt to it easily.
Despite the fact that novel technologies are continuously under development to complement existing practices in coming up with greener buildings, the universal intent is that such structures are designed to diminish the general effect on the built environment on health of the humans in addition to the natural environment via: Diminishing environmental degradation, pollution and waste, improving productivity of the employee and guarding occupant health, efficient usage of water, energy, in addition to other resources.
Our planet has managed to survive and thrive for about 4.54 billion years. In the last 2 million years we have caused enough damage and destruction to make our world “broken” beyond repair. We will not be able to get back the world we once had. The reason behind this is global warming, specifically, the increase of the global temperature due to the burning of fossil fuels and the release of greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere. If we do not make the issue of global warming a priority in today`s society, our entire way of life will be at risk. There are many reasons why so many people believe global warming should be a concern. Thoroughly examined points include: scientific predictions, rising temperatures, human causes, drastic climate changes and animal adaptations. Though there are several points arguing how global warming should not be a concern, the reality of the matter is that it needs to be taken into consideration on a global scale before it is too late, as to do nothing would have devastating implications on humankind.
The heat island phenomenon is created because cities radiate heat back into the atmosphere at a rate 15 percent to 30 percent less than rural areas. The combination of the increased energy consumption and difference in albedo (radiation) means that cities are warmer than rural areas. And these heat islands become traps for atmospheric pollutants. Cloudiness and fog occur with greater frequency. Precipitation is 5 percent to 10 percent higher in cities; thunderstorms and hailstorms are much more frequent, but snow days in cities are less common.