Have you ever walked around a city during the summer and wondered why some blocks were much hotter than others? You're noticing a manufactured occcurence called the urban heat island effect.
Watch this video for a quick introduction to urban heat islands. Then answer the questions in the note box at the bottom of this page.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
[Narrator] Ah, the urban jungle.
Except, it generally has a lot more concrete than an actual jungle, and that makes it hotter.
- The science behind it is relatively simple.
On a sort of 10,000-foot level, hard surfaces tend to be hotter.
Dark surfaces tend to be hotter.
Soft surfaces tend to be cooler.
Shade tends to be cooler.
Unfortunately, within built environments, within these urban areas, we have lots of areas where we have lots and lots of impervious, hard, dark surfaces that hold onto heat, and make those areas very, very, very hot.
And we have fewer areas with green space and shade, that tend to be cooler.
And because these two can be really close to each other, you can see huge amounts of variation.
Sometimes 15 to even 19 or 20-degree differences between areas within the same city, on the same day.
- [Narrator] We call these hotspots urban heat islands.
And with global temperatures on the rise, that heat can turn deadly.
- Heat is our number one weather-related killer.
And we often don't think about that.
We see the floods, we see the hurricanes, we see the fires on TV.
It's kind of hard to show heat on TV.
But we know that a lot of people die in days with extreme heat, and also nights that are extremely hot.
We already have hot parts of the city, historically.
And we're adding a few degrees more warming to that, and we know they're just going to get more unbearable.
In this lesson, you will watch three animations that will give you information about urban heat islands, the incredible benefits of trees, and increasing green spaces in cities. Then you will test your new knowledge with matching terms, quizzes, a lesson review, and an opportunity to organize your notes. If you are assigned the final project designed for this lesson, you can upload it on the final page..
Type your responses to the following questions in the Notes Box, below.
1) Based on the video, why do you think some areas of a city might be hotter than other?
2) How does extreme heat affect people living in cities?
3) What are some ways hot city areas can become cooler? List your ideas here.