Characterisation, interpretation and implications of the Adelaide Urban Heat Island

Abstract

This project focusses on examining the existence and repercussions of an urban heat island and warming generally, for Adelaide city. Adelaide is unique in having a CBD that is surrounded entirely by a band of parks of the order of 500 m wide, so might be expected to have thermal characteristics that differ from other national and international cities. The study clearly establishes the existence of an urban heat island with greatest intensity in the Adelaide CBD, measured relative to that unique parkland belt that encompasses it. As for other cities, it arises from the greater daytime absorption of solar energy by buildings and the slower release of that absorbed energy back to the atmosphere and space overnight, compared with more open sites, which for this study, are the surrounding Park Lands.