Page 337 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 4

Dilara Yılmaz - Sevgi Öztürk

emissions emerged as a result of man-made activities in cities. For this reason,
it is necessary to include the urban heat island primarily in strategies to reduce
its impacts.
One of the most important contributions of green spaces from the
perspective of climate change is that they improve the quality of life of those
living in the city. The increase in temperatures due to the effect of the urban
heat island causes people to be vulnerable to thermal stress. Therefore, it
is an essential requirement for cities to prioritize urban greening policies in
order to ensure sustainable development today and in the future, to reduce
pollution, and to ensure thermal comfort (Gago et al., 2013; Filho et al., 2018;
Antoszewski et al., 2020; Filho et al., 2020).

4.2. Architectural Design and Albedo

The albedo is defined as the reflecting capacity of electromagnetic energy
falling on a surface, that is, the reflecting power of the surface. Albedo values
vary depending on the surface area, texture and color of each element. An
object with a light color reflects most of the light that hits it because it has a
high albedo, while objects with a dark color absorb most of the light falling on
it due to having a low albedo value. As the albedo value of a surface increases,
the surface temperature decreases. The use of materials with a low albedo
value reduces the ambient temperature. Materials with low albedo and high
surface temperature emit higher radiation energy in urban environments. All
these situations also affect the formation of urban heat islands. Urbanization
has many effects on surface albedo. Due to the effect of urbanization, the
surface geometry changes, causing the lessening of snow cover in winter and
changing of the albedo value, especially with the addition of dark-colored
dark surfaces (Bazrkar et al., 2015).
The calculation of surface albedo values using satellite images is important
for spatial detection, especially in understanding the effects of land cover
changes on a local scale. Changes in the surface albedo value play an important
role in the terrestrial energy balance (Myhre et al., 2005; Flanner et al., 2011).
Albedo values vary between 0 and 1. As the albedo value approaches 1, the
amount of energy stored by the surface, that is, its effect on urban heat island
formation, also decreases (Levinson and Akbari, 2001). Albedo is considered
as one of the most important factors that directly affects the formation of urban
heat islands. It is one of the basic strategies that should be implemented to
reduce the urban heat island effect. As both the albedo value and the amount
of plant density increase, the surface temperature value also decreases. (Oke,
1982; Albers et al., 2015).

326 The Journal of Environment, Urban and Climate