Heat Island Effect
Newsroom
Welcome to EPA's Urban Heat Island Newsroom. The Newsroom provides current news and links to news releases related to urban heat island impacts, mitigation strategies, and community initiatives. To help keep you up to date, you may also wish to sign up for EPA's Urban Heat Island Newsletter. Older stories can be found in the Newsroom Archive.
April 2012
- Brooklyn Grange in Enormous Urban Garden
(April 2, 2012) - A roof in Brooklyn is being transformed into a vast urban garden. The green roof will reduce rooftop temperatures, reduce rainwater runoff, and utilize solar panels while producing fruits and vegetables.
- Green rooftops Help Clean Up Beijing's Air (April 2, 2012) - The Beijing municipal government has made plans to improve the quality of the city's air by covering 100,000 square meters of roofs with greenery by the end of this year.
- Escape the Urban Heat Island-Nominated for a $10,000 Grant from Odwalla’s Plant a Tree Program (April 3, 2012) - Odwalla is donating $10,000 to worthy organizations through its 2012 Plant a Tree program, and Environment Action Association’s Escape the Urban Heat Island is in the running for one of the grants.
- Urban Heat Amplifies Death Risk for Elderly (April 13, 2012) – A study finds that older people living in urban areas that do not cool down sufficiently at night are twice as likely to die during heat waves than those living in the suburbs.
- New Ordinances Mean You Can’t Pave over the Yard for More Parking (April 13, 2012) - Two new zoning ordinances in Somerville, Massachusetts encourage green roofs and limit impervious surfaces. The new policies strive to reduce the heat island effect by reducing paving.
- Painting Roofs White is as Green as Taking Cars Off the Roads for 50 Years, Says Study (April 13, 2012) – Scientists estimate that using light-colored surfaces on roofs and pavements in cities town could, on a global scale, increase their albedo by about 10 percent. This would offset between 130 billion and 150 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to taking every car in the world off the road for 50 years.
- Md. Scientists Study Why Spring Came Early (April 17, 2012) - Researchers at the University of Maryland Center found that the urban landscape traps heat in the summer and holds it throughout the winter, triggering leaves to turn green earlier in the spring and to stay green later into the fall.
- On an Urban Heat Island, Zippy Red Oaks (April 25, 2012) – Researchers found that red oak seedlings in Central Park grow up to eight times faster than their cousins cultivated outside the city, probably because of the urban heat island effect.
March 2012
- Bright Is The New Black: New York Roofs Go Cool (March 7, 2012) – A new study of how different white roofing materials performed "in the field" in New York City over multiple years found that even the least expensive white roof coating reduced peak rooftop temperatures in summer by an average of 43°F.
- The Humble Parking Lot Gets a Green Makeover (March 15, 2012) – A new parking lot in Beamsville, Ontario in Canada has a rain garden that will improve stormwater management and help reduce the heat island effect created by large expanses of asphalt.
- ESF’s New Building Highlighted at Conference (March 16, 2012) – The College of Environmental Science and Forestry at the State University of New York, Syracuse, is constructing a new building with multiple sustainable features, including an on-campus combined heat and power system and a 10,000 square foot green roof based on rare native plant community.
- Rooftop Blooms Help Pollinators (March 21, 2012) – A study analyzing green roofs in the UK and Switzerland found that mixed planting attracts more wildlife than a standard green roof planted with sedum.
- Cities on Front Line of Climate Change (March 27, 2012) – The world’s cities bear the brunt of climate change, but some are taking action to both increase resilience to climate impacts and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, such as painting roofs white and planting trees to alleviate the urban heat island effect and lower energy consumption.
- Soon More Heat Stress in Cities? (March 28, 2012) - A global study of the effects persistent heatwaves can have on cities shows that the frequency of summer heat stress could increase more sharply in cities than in the surrounding rural areas.
- QR Code Allows Smartphone Users to Adopt a Tree in D.C. (March 28, 2012) - The District Department of Transportation’s Urban Forestry Administration is piloting a project that allows residents of Washington DC to use their smartphones to scan QR codes in order to adopt a tree. Anyone who is willing to water the trees on a weekly basis from spring through the fall season will be provided with a free 10 gallon watering tub for every adopted tree.
February 2012
- Envision Solar: Solar Tree Array (February 3, 2012) – The Solar Tree Array shades six parking spots while producing enough solar energy to fully charge six electric vehicles per day.
- Oil Sands Produces Its Own Heat Island Effect (February 8, 2012) – A study by researchers at University of Alberta finds that Canada’s oil sands project has created an urban heat island effect, drying out a city-sized area and raising the local temperature by more than a degree.
- Phoenix Is an Island (February 9, 2012) – Concrete, asphalt, rooftops, and three-hundred-some-odd days of sunlight a year means lots of excess heat for Phoenix city dwellers both day and night.
- U.S. Cities Are Losing 4 Million Trees a Year (February 9, 2012) – A study published in the latest issue of the journal Urban Forestry & Urban Greening finds that tree cover had declined in 17 of the 20 analyzed cities.
- PPG to Highlight Cool Roof Coatings at 2012 International Roofing Expo (February 9, 2012) – PPG Industries’ new coatings for metal roofs and building panels deflect solar energy away from buildings, which enables buildings to stay cooler and consume less energy.
- Newly Released American National Standard to Improve Energy Efficiency and Lead the way to a More Sustainable Energy Future (February 10, 2012) – The newly revised Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings includes provisions to help mitigate heat island effect.
- EPA and Hackensack University Medical Center Team Up to Increase Green Practices (February 23, 2012) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Hackensack University Medical Center have entered into an agreement to enhance environmental practices at the hospital, including completing a 7,000 square-foot green roof that will reduce stormwater runoff.
- DeepRoot: A New Solution For Saving Cities Money By Planting Trees (February 27, 2012) – A firm called DeepRoot has designed an underground structure to allow urban tree roots to grow deeper into the ground, resulting in larger, fuller, and healthier trees.
- Spokane’s Tree Canopy Stable (February 29, 2012) – The strong urban forestry program in Spokane, Washington is keeping up the tree canopy of the city.
January 2012
- FarmRoof Goes Up On Kakaako Car Dealership (January 5, 2012) – An organic rooftop farming system is installed on the roof of a car dealership in Kakaako, Hawaii, and is expected to reduce energy costs of the building by 20 percent.
- Tree Pittsburgh Looking to Spread the Word About City’s Urban Forest (January 17, 2012) – Tree Pittsburgh, a non-profit organization, is engaging the public in its urban forestry programs.
- White's All Right for a Cool Change to City's Buildings (January 25, 2012) – A joint study by the City of Melbourne and University of Melbourne found that white roofs can make buildings up to 4 degrees Celsius cooler inside. The push for white roofs is part of the city’s 1200 Buildings program, a central piece in its plan to achieve carbon neutral status by 2020.
- Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Announces Grants for Urban Forestry Projects (January 25, 2012) – The Connecticut DEEP announced that 17 municipalities and non-profit organizations will receive $81,425 in America the Beautiful grants for urban forestry projects in their communities.
- Green Roof Product Cools Solar Panels (January 26, 2012) – The company Green Roof Technology has launched a system for integrating solar power into a green roof. The plants cool the roof and enable the solar panels to achieve greater efficiency.
- Depave: Returning Parking Lots To Paradise (January 27, 2012) – Depave, a non-profit organization in Oregon, has been working to turn superfluous parking lots and other underused expanses of asphalt into productive green space.