Uploaded on 2016-03-07 by jswee

Now that you saw the significant effect of UHI  in the US cities, can you provide data and information for your own place of residence? In Ottawa, we do not have a high UHI effect when compared to other larger cities such as Montreal or Toronto. Our downtown core is made up of a dozen streets with a variety of building heights, but broken up by many open spaces, a canal and parkland. There is still a temperature difference in both the winter and the summer from rural locations because of many paved roads and some radiative reflective surfaces. During this winter, we had no snow until after Christmas day, which is unusual and possibly connected to UHI. I am wondering how UHI works for climates like ours where we have very extreme temperature lows in the winter (-42 C) Does it makes winter temperature swings more dramatic? 3. Which are the measures you would propose? If you could take part in the decision making process of an initiative related to the UHI effect, which are the measures that you would propose in order to reduce it and provide a more livable environment to the citizens? Our biggest struggles as a city is the erosion of green space within city boundaries. Ottawa has long since prided itself on its “greenbelt” that was an important part of city planning in the early years. With growing demands on land and the profitability of building condo apartments, these green spaces are being gradually ursurped. These important spaces provide a break the heat and stress of city life alongside reduction of UHI effects. I recently took a day course on the topic of city planning given by the City of Ottawa, and UHI was not mentioned as a concern when speaking about issues surrounding urban planning. 4. Is UHI effect concerning policy making in your area? Do you know of policies in your community that are planned to reduce the UHI effect? Provide us with information regarding  any visible results. In doing a bit of research about UHI and my city, I could not find much information. I did find an recent research paper written about the topic – but it was more directed at look at streamflow and the effects that UHI would have on surrounding areas in relationship to flooding. The document is called, Assessing the impacts of the urban heat island effect on streamflow patterns in Ottawa, Canada Jan Adamowski a,⇑, Andreas Prokoph b After looking at this article – I was thinking about the incredible snowfall record that we broke on Feb 16, 2016 (46cm in one day) here in Ottawa and where for the first time in my 15 year teaching career, we had our school transportation cancelled for two days in a row. How does UHI affect cold climates like Ottawa during the winter season?![This is our neighbour's car buried under 46cm of snow in a 24 hour period.][1] [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/1457318600895566.jpg