surface temperatures. Some of the specific activities that drive the UHI include the composition of the dark building materials we use to construct the city and the lack of incorporated green spaces. Another thing is that bright surfaces such as concrete tend to create convection into the air that can potentially create more extreme weather in addition to increased temperatures. The research question here involves whether the Urban Heat Island actually exists and what is the primary driver of the condition (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The Urban Heat Island in Lexington, Kentucky, as seen from space. The highest temperatures are denoted by the lighter colors and correlate with impervious land covers.
This research was mostly about using geospatial technology to monitor and quantify changes to the natural environment and correlate these changes to the distribution of urban heat. We used ArcGIS to create maps in the eastern United States, which contains the most urban heat islands. Using ArcGIS and many environmental datasets, my group figured out if urban heat island actually existed in essentially all locations. Here, the relative magnitude of the UHI is a measure of the potential difference between the urban and non-urban areas of a particular city, as illustrated in Figure 1. For example, the city of Chicago has a greater UHI.