Urban Heat Island Phenomena Kolan Livingston, Junior, Wyoming High School, Ohio Jeremy Sandifer, STEM Project Coordinator, CAFSSS Dr. Buddhi Gyawali, Assistant Professor and SAP Director, CAFSSS

An Urban Heat Island (UHI) is an area within a city that has significantly warmer temperatures than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities. The causes of UHI vary with location and can be traced to man-made activities such as built structures within urban areas that provide multiple surfaces for the reflection and absorption of sunlight, increasing the efficiency with which urban areas are heated. Others cause an include the reflection of the sun and absorption of long-wave radiation that is retained within concrete and asphalt compared to rural areas with more forested areas that are cooled by shading and transpiration. Thus, the main differences between the UHI in cities is the level of urban development, such as the number of buildings, miles of paved roads, and number of forested areas.

What is an Urban Heat Island (UHI) and why is it called that? An Urban Heat Island is an area that is significantly warmer that it's surrounding rural areas due to human activities such as land cover conversion and electricity generation. What is the primary cause of the UHI? Many buildings found in urban areas have smooth hard surfaces that effectively trap solar energy and eradicate this energy so that the air and surface adjacent are heated. In contrast, brightly colored and pervasive surfaces are cooler and contribute less to the UHI magnitude. Due to the