Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Creating the park cool island in an inner-city neighborhood: heat mitigation strategy for Phoenix, AZ

  • Published:
Urban Ecosystems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We conducted microclimate simulations in ENVI-Met 3.1 to evaluate the impact of vegetation in lowering temperatures during an extreme heat event in an urban core neighborhood park in Phoenix, Arizona. We predicted air and surface temperatures under two different vegetation regimes: existing conditions representative of Phoenix urban core neighborhoods, and a proposed scenario informed by principles of landscape design and architecture and Urban Heat Island mitigation strategies. We found significant potential air and surface temperature reductions between representative and proposed vegetation scenarios: 1) a Park Cool Island effect that extended to non-vegetated surfaces; 2) a net cooling of air underneath or around canopied vegetation ranging from 0.9 °C to 1.9 °C during the warmest time of the day; and 3) potential reductions in surface temperatures from 0.8 °C to 8.4 °C in areas underneath or around vegetation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson GB, Bell ML (2011) Heat waves in the United States: mortality risk during heat waves and effect modification by heat wave characteristics in 43 U.S. communities. Environ Health Perspect 119(2):210–218

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Anselin L (1995) Local indicators of spatial association - LISA. Geogr Anal 27:93–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ASTER SP (2010) Characteristics of ASTER sensor. http://www.science.aster.ersdac.or.jp/en/about_aster/sensor/tokutyou.html. Accessed 11 July 2012

  • Balling RC, Brazel SW (1987) The impact of rapid urbanization on pan evaporation in Phoenix, Arizona. J Climatol 7:593–597

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barradas VL, Tejeda-Martinez A, Jauregui E (1999) Energy balance measurements in a suburban vegetated area in Mexico City. Atmos Environ 33:4109–4113

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Boone C, Buckley G, Grove J, Sister C (2009) Parks and people: an environmental justice inquiry in Baltimore, Maryland. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 99:767–787

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brazel A, Selover N, Vose R, Heisler G (2000) The tale of two climates - Baltimore and Phoenix urban LTER sites. Clim Res 15:123–135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brazel A, Gober P, Lee SJ, Grossman-Clarke S, Zehnder J, Hedquist B, Comparri B (2007) Determinants of changes in the regional urban heat island in metropolitan Phoenix (Arizona, USA) between 1990 and 2004. Clim Res 33:171–182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brownlow A (2006) An archaeology of fear and environmental change in Philadelphia. Geoforum 37(2):227–245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruse M, Fleer H (1998) Simulating surface-plant-air interactions inside urban environments with a three dimensional numerical model. Environ Model Software 13:373–384

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buyantuyev A, Wu J (2012) Urbanization diversifies land surface phenology in arid environments: interactions among vegetation, climatic variation, and land use pattern in the Phoenix metropolitan region, USA. Landsc Urban Plan 105:149–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Byrne J, Wolch J, Zhang J (2009) Planning for environmental justice in an urban national park. J Environ Plan Manag 52:365–392

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chow WTL, Pope RL, Martin CA, Brazel AJ (2011) Observing and modeling the nocturnal park cool island of an arid city: horizontal and vertical impacts. Theor Appl Climatol 103:197–211

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Currie B, Bass B (2008) Estimates of air pollution mitigation with green plants and green roofs using the UFORE model. Urban Ecosyst 11:409–422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Groot RS, Alkemade R, Braat L, Hein L, Willeman L (2010) Challenges in integrating the concept of ecosystem services and values in landscape planning, management and decision making. Ecol Complex 7:260–272

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Smith MJ, Goodchild MF, Longley PA (2007) Geospatial Analysis. Troubador Publishing Ltd

  • Diffenbaugh N, Pal J, Trapp R, Giorgi F (2005) Fine-scale processes regulate the response of extreme events to global climate change. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:15774–15778

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dooling S, Simon G, Yocom K (2006) Place-based urban ecology: a century of park planning in Seattle. Urban Ecosyst 9:299–321

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emmanuel R, Fernando H (2007) Urban heat islands in humid and arid climates: role of urban form and thermal properties in Colombo, Sri Lanka and Phoenix, USA. Clim Res 34:241–251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • EPA (2011) Natural Disasters and Weather Emergencies: Extreme Heat. http://www.epa.gov/naturalevents/extremeheat.html. Accessed 11 July 2012

  • Garcia-Cueto OR, Jauregui-Ostos E, Toudert D, Tejeda-Martinez A (2007) Detection of the urban heat island in Mexicali, B. C., Mexico and its relationship with land use. Atmosfera 20:111–131

    Google Scholar 

  • Gober P, Brazel A, Quay R, Myint S, Grossman-Clarke S, Miller A, Rossi S (2009) Using watered landscapes to manipulate urban heat island effects: how much water will it take to cool Phoenix? J Am Plann Assoc 76:109–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grimmond C, Souch C, Hubble M (1996) Influence of tree cover on summertime surface energy balance fluxes, San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles. Clim Res 6:45–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grossman-Clarke S, Zehnder JA, Stefanov WL, Liu Y, Zoldak MA (2005) Urban modifications in a mesoscale meteorological model and the effects on near-surface variables in an arid metropolitan region. J Appl Meteorol 44:1281–1297

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guhathakurta S, Wichert M (1998) Who pays for growth in the city of Phoenix? An equity-based perspective on suburbanization. Urban Aff Rev 33:813–838

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harlan SL, Brazel AJ, Prashad L, Stefanov WL, Larsen L (2006) Neighborhood microclimates and vulnerability to heat stress. Soc Sci Med 63:2847–2863

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hedquist BC, Di Sabatino S, Fernando HJS, Brazel AJ (2009) Results from the Phoenix Arizona Urban Heat Island Experiment. The seventh International Conference on Urban Climate. 29 June – 3 July 2009, Yokohama, Japan. http://www.ide.titech.ac.jp/~icuc7/extended_abstracts/pdf/384812-1-090518233339-002.pdf. Accessed 14 Dec 2012

  • Heisler GM, Grant RH, Grimmond S, Souch C (1995) Urban forests—cooling our communities? In: Kollin C, Barratt M (eds) Proceedings: 7th national urban forest conference. American Forests. Washington, DC, pp 31–34. http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/programs/uesd/uep/products/cufr_57_EM95_25.PDF. Accessed 14 Dec 2012

  • Hill T, Polsky C (2007) Development and drought in suburbia: a mixed methods rapid assessment of vulnerability to drought in rainy Massachusetts. Glob Environ Chang Part B Environ Hazards 7:291–301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huttner S, Bruse M, Dostal P (2008) Using ENVI-met to simulate the impact of global warming on the microclimate in central European cities. In: Mayer H, Matzarakis A (eds) Berichte des Meteorologischen Instituts der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg Nr. 18: 5th Japanese-German Meeting on Urban Climatology, pp 307–312. http://www.envi-met.com/documents/papers/Huttner_etal_2008.pdf. Accessed 14 Dec 2012

  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007) Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_ipcc_fourth_assessment_report_synthesis_report.htm. Accessed 11 July 2012

  • Jenerette GD, Harlan SL, Brazel A, Jones N, Larsen L, Stefanov WL (2007) Regional relationships between surface temperature, vegetation, and human settlement in a rapidly urbanizing ecosystem. Landsc Ecol 22:353–365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenerette GD, Harlan SL, Stefanov WL, Martin CA (2011) Ecosystem services and urban heat riskscape moderation: water, green spaces, and social inequality in Phoenix, USA. Ecol Appl 21:2637–2651

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jennings V, Johnson Gaither C, Schulterbrandt Gragg R (2012) Promoting environmental justice through urban green space access: a synopsis. Environ Justice 5:1–7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lahme E, Bruse M (2003) Microclimatic effects of a small urban park in densely built-up areas: measurements and model simulations. Fifth International Conference on Urban Climate(ICUC5) Lodz, 1–5 September 2003. http://www.envi-met.com/documents/papers/park2003.pdf. Accessed 14 Dec 2012

  • Lalic B, Mihailovic DT (2004) An empirical relation describing leaf-area density inside the forest for environmental modeling. J Appl Meteorol 43:641–645

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lowry W (1967) The climate of cities. Sci Am 217:15–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin CA (2009) Virtual Library of Phoenix Landscape Plants. http://www.public.asu.edu/~camartin/Martin%20landscape%20plant%20library.htm. Accessed 11 July 2012

  • Martin CA, Stabler LB (2002) Plant gas exchange and water status in urban desert landscapes. J Arid Environ 51:235–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin CA, Stabler LB (2004) Urban horticultural ecology: interactions between plants, people and the physical environment. Acta Horticult 639:97–101

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin CA, Warren PS, Kinzig AP (2004) Neighborhood socioeconomic status is a useful predictor of perennial landscape vegetation in residential neighborhoods and embedded small parks of Phoenix, Arizona. Landsc Urban Plan 69:355–368

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matzarakis A, Rutz F, Mayer H (2010) Modelling radiation fluxes in simple and complex environments: basics of the RayMan model. Int J Biometeorol 54:131–139

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meehl G, Tebaldi C (2004) More intense, more frequent, and longer lasting heat waves in the 21st century. Science 305:994–997

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mills G (2006) Progress toward sustainable settlements: a role for urban climatology. Theor Appl Climatol 84:69–76

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oke TR (1989) The micrometeorology of the urban forest. Philos Trans R Soc B Biol Sci 324:335–349

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oke TR (1997) The changing climatic environments: urban climates and global environmental change. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Ozkeresteci I, Crewe K, Brazel AJ, Bruse M (2003) Use and evaluation of the ENVI-Met model for environmental design and planning: an experiment of linear parks. Proceedings of the 21st International Cartographic Conference. 10–16 August 2003, Durban, South Africa. http://icaci.org/files/documents/ICC_proceedings/ICC2003/Papers/516.pdf. Accessed 18 Dec 2012

  • Payne-Sturges D, Gee GC, Crowder K, Hurley BJ, Lee C, Morello-Frosch R, Rosenbaum A, Schulz A, Wells C, Woodruff T, Zenich H (2006) Workshop summary: connecting social and environmental factors to measure and track environmental health disparities. Environ Res 102:146–153

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pearlmutter D, Berliner P, Shaviv E (2006) Physical modeling of pedestrian energy exchange within the urban canopy. Build Environ 41:783–795

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perkins H, Heynen N, Wilson J (2004) Inequitable access to urban reforestation: the impact of urban political economy on housing tenure and urban forests. Cities 21:291–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robaa S (2003) Urban-suburban/rural differences over greater Cairo, Egypt. Atmósfera 16(3):157–171. http://www.ejournal.unam.mx/atm/Vol16-3/ATM16303.pdf. Accessed 18 Dec 2012

  • Rosheidat A, Hoffman D, Bryan H (2008) Visualizing pedestrian comfort using ENVI-Met. Third National Conference of IBPSA-USA, July 30 – August 1, 2008, Berkeley, California. http://www.ibpsa.us/simbuild2008/technical_sessions/SB08-DOC-TS10-2-Rosheidat.pdf. Accessed 18 Dec 2012

  • Roth M (2002) Effects of cities on local climates. Proceedings of Workshop of IGES/APN Mega-City Project. Rihga Royal Hotel Kokura, Kitakyushu Japan, January 2002. http://enviroscope.iges.or.jp/contents/13/data/PDF/08-1(Roth).pdf. Accessed 18 Dec 2012

  • Ruddell DM, Harlan SL, Grossman-Clarke S, Buyantuyev A (2010) Risk and exposure to extreme heat in microclimates of Phoenix, AZ. In: Showalter PS, Lu Y (eds) Geospatial techniques in urban hazard and disaster research. Springer, New York, pp 179–202

    Google Scholar 

  • Shashua-Bar L, Potchter O, Bitan A, Boltansky D, Yaakov Y (2010a) Microclimate modelling of street tree species effects within the varied urban morphology in the Mediterranean city of Tel Aviv, Israel. Int J Climatol 30:44–57

    Google Scholar 

  • Shashua-Bar L, Pearlmutter D, Erell E (2010b) The influence of trees and grass on outdoor thermal comfort in a hot-arid environment. Int J Climatol 31(6):1498–1506

    Google Scholar 

  • Spronken-Smith RA, Oke TR (1998) The thermal regime of urban parks in two cities with different summer climates. Int J Remote Sens 19(11):2085–2104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stabler LB, Martin CA, Brazel AJ (2005) Microclimates in a desert city were related to land use and vegetation index. Urban For Urban Green 3:137–147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stoll M, Brazel AJ (1992) Surface-air temperature relationships in the urban environment of Phoenix, Arizona. Phys Geogr 13:160–179

    Google Scholar 

  • USD of A (2007) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). Geospatial Data Gateway. http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/. Accessed 11 July 2012

  • Voogt JA, Oke TR (2003) Thermal remote sensing of urban climates. Remote Sens Environ 86:370–384

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker J, Blaschke T (2008) Object-based land-cover classification for the Phoenix metropolitan area: optimization vs. transportability. Int J Remote Sens 29:2021–2040

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson SM (2009) An ecologic framework to study and address environmental justice and community health issues. Environ Justice 2:15–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolch J, Wilson JP, Fehrenbach J (2005) Parks and park funding in Los Angeles: an equity mapping analysis. Urban Geogr 26:4–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf J, Adger WN, Lorenzoni I, Abrahamson V, Raine R (2010) Social capital, individual responses to heat waves and climate change adaptation: an empirical study of two UK cities. Glob Environ Chang 20:44–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou W, Huang G, Cadenasso ML (2011) Does spatial configuration matter? Understanding the effects of land cover pattern on land surface temperature in urban landscapes. Landsc Urban Plan 102:54–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The work presented here is funded by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. GEO-0816168, Urban Vulnerability to Climate Change. The authors thank Ben Ruddell at the Arizona State University College of Technology and Innovation for comments on an early manuscript, Nancy Selover, Arizona State Climatologist, for providing PRISMS meteorological station data, and Juan Brenes-García, SBD Studio for advice on landscape design. We also thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for helpful commentary that improved this article. The authors accept responsibility, however, for our ideas, results, and interpretations.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 872402, Tempe, AZ, 85287-2402, USA

    Juan Declet-Barreto & Sharon L. Harlan

  2. School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 875302, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Anthony J. Brazel

  3. Department of Applied Sciences and Mathematics, Arizona State University, 6073 South Backus Mall, Mesa, AZ, 85212, USA

    Chris A. Martin

  4. Department of Engineering, College of Technology and Innovation, Arizona State University, 7231 E Sonoran Arroyo Mall, 330 Santan Hall, Mesa, AZ, 85212, USA

    Winston T. L. Chow

Authors
  1. Juan Declet-Barreto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anthony J. Brazel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Chris A. Martin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Winston T. L. Chow
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Sharon L. Harlan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juan Declet-Barreto.

Electronic supplementary materials

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Online Resource 1

(a) dT a between RV and LA Vegetation Scenarios (°C) at 0500 hrs, and (b) LISA Analysis of dT a between RV and LA Vegetation Scenarios (°C) at 0500 hrs. High/high and low/low LISA results are significant at the 95 percent confidence interval. (JPEG 1675 kb)

Online Resource 2

(a) dT a between RV and LA Vegetation Scenarios (°C) at 1700 hrs, and (b) LISA Analysis of dT a between RV and LA Vegetation Scenarios (°C) at 1700 hrs. High/high and low/low LISA results are significant at the 95 percent confidence interval (JPEG 1648 kb)

Online Resource 3

(a) Surface Covers, and (b) Linked-Histogram of T s (°C) for RV Scenario at 1700 hrs. (JPEG 1207 kb)

Online Resource 4

(a) Surface Covers, and (b) Linked-Histogram of T s (°C) for LA Scenario at 1700 hrs. (JPEG 1204 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Declet-Barreto, J., Brazel, A.J., Martin, C.A. et al. Creating the park cool island in an inner-city neighborhood: heat mitigation strategy for Phoenix, AZ. Urban Ecosyst 16, 617–635 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-012-0278-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-012-0278-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation