COUNTERACTIONS FOR URBAN HEAT ISLAND IN REGIONAL AUTONOMIES: ACTIVITIES IN COUNCILS OF MOE, JAPAN

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1 COUNTERACTIONS FOR URBAN HEAT ISLAND IN REGIONAL AUTONOMIES: ACTIVITIES IN COUNCILS OF MOE, JAPAN Toshiaki Ichinose *, Takehiko Mikami**, Kiyoshi Niitsu***, Nobuyuki Okada**** *, ***National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan; **Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan; ****TAM Factory for Regional Landscape and Environment Co. LTD., Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan Abstract Ministry of Environment (MoE) has started making systematic counteractions against urban heat island (UHI) in Japanese regional autonomies regarding UHI as one of air pollution by heat. Nowadays a viewpoint of thermal environmental protection in urban planning process is still an unfamiliar concept for Japanese urban planners. But thermal stress in summer is one of the strong interests of many Japanese citizens. MoE has organized several councils on UHI problems and published reports on counteractions for them. These activities have brought the concept of mitigation of urban thermal pollution as a new viewpoint to urban planning process in regional autonomies in Japan. Key words: counteraction, regional autonomy, mitigation 1. INTRODUCTION Monitoring of urban heat island (UHI) phenomena were performed by the authors group during three years ( ) in Asian three cities (Tokyo, Shanghai and Bangkok) and guidelines for urban planning in the future were drawn considering the data taken in the monitoring and their numerical simulation with climate models (ex. Mikami et al., 2000; Ichinose Eds., 1997). These results showed a basic routine on urban climate analysis (evaluation of anthropogenic heat, building structure and vegetation coverage in viewpoint of urban thermal environment, and recommendation for urban planning process) with its availability. After this project, Ministry of Environment (MoE) has started making systematic counteractions against UHI in Japanese regional autonomies regarding UHI as one of air pollution by heat. The authors project was one of its triggers. Nowadays a viewpoint of thermal environmental protection in urban planning process is still an unfamiliar concept for Japanese urban planners. But thermal stress in summer is one of the strong interests of many Japanese citizens. MoE has organized several councils on UHI problems and published reports on counteractions for them. These activities have brought the concept of mitigation of urban thermal pollution as a new viewpoint to urban planning process in regional autonomies in Japan. The authors, as members of these councils, discussed on desirable counteractions for UHI in Japanese and Asian regional autonomies and evaluations on the individual counteractions, based on discussions and results of these councils. 2. ACTIVITIES OF UHI COUNCILS OF MOE * Corresponding author address: Toshiaki Ichinose, Center for Global Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2, Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki , Japan; toshiaki@nies.go.jp

2 Activities of UHI councils in the Japanese government were summarized in the following time board (Table 1). Each council was composed of 7 to 15 experts (building scientists, physical geographers, meteorologists, environmental scientists, urban planners, administrative staffs in regional autonomies). Table 1 Activities of UHI councils in the Japanese government Year Organizer Chair Study Field Mission Report 2000 Environment Agency 1 Dr. T. Ichinose 2 Nothing Fundamental knowledge on urban thermal environmental issues for regional autonomies in Environment Agency (2000) Japan 2001 MoE Prof. Dr. T. Tokyo, Nagoya, Fundamental surveys on urban climate MoE (2001a) Ojima 3 Sendai Numerical simulation on urban climate with UCSS 4 and on HIP MoE Dr. T. Ichinose Nothing Inventory of technologies for improvement of urban thermal environment MoE (2001b) 2001 Ministries League (ML) on UHI (MoE, MLIT 6, METI 7 ) was established MoE Prof. Dr. T. Ojima Tokyo, Minato ward in Tokyo Concept of Heat Management Evaluation on precise heat balance with UCSS (Head: Dr. Y. Ashie) Klimaatlas in Tokyo (Head: Dr. T. Ichinose) Simple numerical simulator for use in regional autonomies Inventory of technologies for improvement of urban thermal environment MoE (2002) 2003 MoE Prof. Dr. T. Tokyo, Minato Evaluation on the effect of individual (Published Ojima ward in Tokyo counteraction with UCSS (Head: Dr. Y. Ashie) soon) Computing urban climate in 1930s Advanced Klimaatlas in Tokyo (Head: Dr. T. Ichinose) Urban ventilation lanes in Japanese cities 2003 MoE Prof. Dr. M. Moriyama 8 Sendai Applying the procedures experienced in Tokyo to a local autonomy (Published soon) Fundamental surveys on urban climate including numerical simulation in CFD method Klimaatlas in Sendai 2003 MLIT Prof. Dr. Y. Maruta 9 Tokyo, Fukuoka Evaluation on the effect of green space on UHI with UCSS Klimaatlas (Climate function map focusing on the effect of green space) in Tokyo and Fukuoka Strategy making for urban planning in Tokyo and Fukuoka considering on the effect of green space (Published soon) 2003 Fundamental Policy on UHI by ML on UHI (scheduled) 1 since 2001: =MoE, 2 NIES (National Inst. Environ. Studies), 3 Waseda Univ., 4 Urban Climate Simulation System (Dr. Y. Ashie, Build. Res. Inst.), 5 Heat Island Potential (Prof. Dr. A. Hoyano, Tokyo Inst. Tech.), 6 Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, 7 Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, 8 Kobe Univ., 9 Chiba Univ.

Fig. 1 Counteractions for UHI (MoE, 2001b) Table 2 Example of matrix for evaluation on counteractions for UHI (MoE, 2001a) Counteractions Spatial Scale Temporal Effect (Nighttime Cost Responsibility

3 Fig. 1 Counteractions for UHI (MoE, 2001b) Table 2 Example of matrix for evaluation on counteractions for UHI (MoE, 2001a) Counteractions Spatial Scale Temporal Effect (Nighttime Cost Responsibility Scale and Daytime) (1) reduction of anthropogenic heat Building materials against heat loss building short - middle C and C low personal - autonomy (2) improvement of anthropogenic coverage Protection and arrangement of district - urban middle - long A and A middle company - autonomy green (3) improvement of urban structure Arrangement of urban ventilation district - urban middle - long B and B high autonomy path

4 3. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS During recent several years, many mass medias (ex. NHK, The Japan Times, The Washington Post) have picked up these actions of the Japanese government. For these actions, strong interests are given from Asian countries. As foreign examples of such actions, Staedtebauliche Klimafibel (Wirtschaftsministerium, Baden-Wuerttemberg, 1998) and VDI-guideline (VDI, 1997) in Germany, EPA Report (EPA, 1992) in USA are well known but applicable contents for Japanese case studies have to be developed by our own country. In some regional autonomies in Japan, they will promote counteractions for UHI with for global warming as one general action. Now SCJ (Science Council of Japan) is also preparing his new action plan and recommendation for policy making on UHI. These Japanese movements will give no little impact for Asian countries on policy for urban planning considering urban thermal environmental protection. References Environment Agency, 2000, Report of UHI council (in Japanese) EPA, 1992, Cooling our communities: A guidebook on tree planting and light-colored surfacing. Ichinose, T. Eds., 1997, International Symposium on Monitoring and Management of Urban Heat Island, Proceedings, pp Mikami, T., Kannari, A., Yamazoe, Y., Kubo, S., Suzuki, C., Kimura, K., 2000, Investigation of urban heat islands in Tokyo Metropolis based on the ground monitoring system, Biometeorology and Urban Climatology at the Turn of the Millennium, MoE, 2001a, Report of UHI council on analyses (in Japanese) MoE, 2001b, Report of UHI council on methods for counteractions (in Japanese) MoE, 2002, Report of UHI council (in Japanese) VDI, 1997, Umweltmeteorologie. Klima- und Lufthygienekarten fuer Staedte und Regionen, VDI-Richtlinien VDI3787 Blatt 1, pp. 73+ (in German and in English) Wirtschaftsministerium, Baden-Wuerttemberg, 1998, Staedtebauliche Klimafibel. Hinweise fuer die Bauleitplanung, pp (in German)

5 th Japanese-German Meeting on Urban Climatology

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