Uploaded on 2017-01-11 by Jaime Andres Fajardo Bastidas

Which are the main UHI effects that I can identify in my area? Due to Global Warming, People in Caracas have had to regulate their water and energy consumption. Last year due to the drought the schedules for workers were reduced from working 5 days a week to work only 2. This was done in order to reduce the water and energy consumption. Some of these implementations are still alive, for example there some areas of the city where people only can get access to water, two hours in the morning and two in the evening. Even though there are not reliable resources regarding these kinds of topics, it is estimated that the temperature of the city has increased about 2 degrees celsius during the last 50 years, and with the plans that obligate public entities to reduce their consumption of Energy, one the most affected systems was the Caracas Metro. It was very warm for people to use it, which disentivated the use of this mean of transport, and made people use private systems of transport (cars or motorbikes) increasing the production of CO2, this is better called as a vicious circle. After seeing the two images above, it could be identified that rural areas are organized following the water flows. While urban areas have been drawn according to transport flows but with the rules of the modern era, which means according to car use. High buildings, plus high production of CO2 and high levels of heat from the sun are the perfect place for UHI, also because of the geometry of the city does not allow the air to circulate correctly, that's what happens in Caracas. On the other hand, in the picture of Canaima, also in Venezuela, shows how air and water influenced the flows of this area, and the high levels of vegetation do not allow to the generation of large portion of Heat Islands. Which are measures I would propose? The first one I would propose is to install a network of meteorological sensors to measure air temperature. I would create a network compose by some that are fixed and others movable, which would provide data regarding the temperature of the air all over the city in different times and seasons. This in order to propose urban strategies to reduce the the temperature in the UHI. I will also measure the the CO2 production, generating a network that provides information regarding the one of the causes of global warming in the city, so that I would be measuring the consequences by the identification of the UHI but also one of the causes by production of CO2. After I would analyse their relation with the buildings they are surrounded by and I could identify some issues that cooperate to the creation of Urban Heat Island so I´ll create planning policies to avoid bad practices. Is UHI concerning policy making in your area? I think is kind of sad, because of the crisis Venezuela lives in, there are not strong programs regarding UHI or environmental care in general. It is not the most important issue nowadays in this context, however it would be a possible path to overcome the crisis, due to facing the problamtics of Global Warming, including UHI, implies a huge improvement in the new economic system, which in this case would discourage the use and production in large scale of petrol, which is the base of the economy here and one of the main reasons of the current crisis.