Example of Published Work 5.4.16

COOLING STRATEGIES ON CAMPUS TO REDUCE URBAN HEAT ISLANDS IN HOUSTON, TEXAS

PREPARED BY:The Texas Southern University, Barbra Jordan- Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs

PREPARED FOR:The Texas Southern Universtiy Urban Planning and Environmental Policy Department

ii Cooling Strategies on Campus

Cover Photographs:Center: Texas Southern University School of Public Affairs, Houston, Texas

Source: Kirksey Architecture

Cooling Strategies on Campus to Reduce Urban Heat Islands in Houston, Texas

May, 2016

The Texas Southern Universtiy, Barbra Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs

Shonta’ N. Moore, MSZain WalkaboutMahdi ZareAries MiloTalal Alzahrani

Texas Southern University Urban Planning and Environmental Policy Department

Contents iii

iv Cooling Strategies on Campus

Contents v

Contents

Section One: Introduction 1.A. Executive Summary 1.B. Principles of Climate Change 1.C. Principles of the Urban Heat Island Effect 1.D. Overview of the City of Houston’s Climate

Section Two: Climate Change in Houston 2.A. Introduction 2.B History of Houston’s Climate 2.C. Impacts of Houston’s Climate 2.C.i. Transportation 2.C.ii. Energy 2.C.iii. Air Pollution

Section Three: Texas Southern Climate Highlights 3.A. Purpose 3.B. Campus Hotspots

3.C. Plans and Recommendations Section Four: Design 4.A. Climate Statistics 4.B. Geographical Information System Analysis 4.C. Results and Discussion

Section Five: Conclusion

Appendix A Maps B Graphs

6 Cooling Strategies on Campus

Executive Summary

These days, it is well known that urban tem-peratures are generally higher than suburban and rural areas. This phenomenon is called the Urban Heat Island (UHI). An increase in im-pervious surfaces leads to decrease vegetation coverage and water surfaces, which then drives the development of UHIs. This study proposes practical solutions to reduce heat islands at Texas Southern University (TSU) located in the City of Houston, Texas. As the 4th largest city in the United State, Houston is classified as hu-mid subtropical. Its geographical characteristics enhance the UHI intensity and then negatively impact energy consumption, air quality, and public health on communities.This case study identifies hotspots on TSU campus and analyze ground surface characteristics – geographical location, greening areas, building density, and land use/land cover (LULC) patterns − over those areas. In addition, it provides potential UHI mitigation strategies to achieve a sustain-able campus, as compared to other cooling places in Houston. Its output could be used to evaluate the potential of such solution to

mitigate the UHI through urban design and land-use policies.

Finally, we expect to reduce surface tempera-tures on campus by developing green space on hotspots and help improve the quality of cam-pus life.

In doing so, remote sensed images captured by Landsat TM are employed to estimate surface temperature with 30m spatial resolution and identify hotspots in the city. As for morphologi-cal characteristics, we use diverse geographic information system (GIS) data created by the City of Houston and create our own GIS data.

7 Section One

Section One: Introduction

Figure 1:

It’s no mystery that something must be done in order to build a more sustainable and environmentally friendly society. Several campaigns have been initiated in order to encourage green practices in our personal lives, such as recycling and conserving energy. Just as it is important for us to become more cognizant of our usage, it is more important for businesses to practice these same efforts. Campuses across the world are taking the initiative to be-come more sustainable. Numerous universities are realiz-ing the importance of reducing their carbon footprint and are attentive to the need for greener buildings, greener practices, and ways to include the staff, students, and the surrounding communities.The temperature of the world is increasing at a rapid pace and cities such as Houston, are currently becoming more and more populated. As these two non-related instances occur, the concept of the urban heat island effect is introduced.

As technological capabilities and mitigation efforts continue to imporve, the urban heat island effect can be reversed. These improvements include reflective and po-rour paving products, refelctive and green roofs, and the implemetiationof trees adn vegetation. In order to apply the conept, a better understanding of climate change and its effects is required.

What is Climate Change?

As the surface temperature on Earth rises, this phe-nomenon is referred to as climate change. The effects of climate change are dependent upon both human and natural contributions. According to the EPA, the temperature here on Earth has increased by 1.5 degres Fahrenheit (°F) in the last 100 years. Scientists have projected that the Earth’s temperature is expected to increase between 0.5 to 8.6 °F in the next century. Climae change occurs as significant changes in tem-perature, precipitation, or wind patterns occur over a specific amount of time.

More recently, the concept of climate change has been more commonly referred to as global warming. Global warming occurs as the conconcentrations of green-house gases increase causing the average global tem-perature near the Earth’s surface to increase.

Principles of Climate Change

Figure 2: Illustration of climate chnage across the United StatesSource: Masers Energy


9 Section One

Figure 3: Identification of greenhouse gases and their sourcesSource: www.sabc.co.za

What are Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)?

Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere are known as greenhouse gases. These gases in-clude carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and fluorinated gases.

The burning of fossil fuels, solid waste, trees, and wood products is the leading contributor of CO2 emissions. CO2 is also released into the at-mosphere as a result of various chemical reac-tions (i.e. cement manufacturing). The process of photosynthesis and the biological carbon cylce aids in removing CO2 gas from the atmo-sphere. Coal, natural gas, and oil production, as well as the decay of waste from livestock and other agricultural practices, are the leading causes of CH4 emissions. N2O is released

What are the Impacts of Climate Change?

The impacts of climate change can be detrimental to the environment, vegetation, and health of people world over. Climate change physically alters the way our sys-tem ecosystem naturally functions causing mutations and unhealthy habitations. As emissions continue to be released into the earth’s atmosphere and ozone at higher concentrated levels, physical changes begin to take form. For example, individuals with chronic respiratory disorders, such as asthma and bronchitis begin to have life threatening issues such as being able to breathe effectively. Trees, which naturally filter the earth’s atmosphere are being used to supply the world with wood for building and other resources.

Chopping down trees for reasons as such, put the earth and vegetation at risk of be-coming heavily polluted because trees hold up to 10 pounds of emissions each years by naturally filtering the earth’s atmo-sphere.

Combating Climate Change

Researchers have creatively come up with ideas to combating climate change. These ideas not only help combat the issue of cli-mate change, but they also add to the char-acter of the geographical area. There are many ways to combat climate control, one is the way we plant our trees and the types of trees we plant. Tree canopies are used in order to provide shade to the public while walking or socializing outdoors. Not only are they used to provide shade, the effect of evapotranspiration allow the trees to act as outdoor air conditioning for the public as well as air filters. There is a process that moves water through trees


to provide a cooling effect into the air, simply put- it is a transfer of water from trees to the trees leaves and the end result are the leaves cooling off the area in which individuals are standing under.

The installation of solar panels and the uti-lization of solar power can reduce global warming. One of the greatest benefits of solar energy is that it does not release any harmful emissions into the air creating the greenhouse effect and contributing to global warming which of course, increases temperatures to those of “above normal”. Some of the outdoor lighting at Texas Southern already uses panels to soak up energy from the sun and is used at night time to light up the lights. The benefit: Not using energy powered by chemical plants which releases emissions and increases tem-peratures but uses energy stored by the natural sun to power on.

11 Section One

Figure 4: Effects of Global WarmingSource: www.thinkprogress.com

Principles of Urban Heat Islands

What are Urban Heat Islands?

With the increasing number of roads, build-ings, industry and people due to urbanization, urban heat islands are being created. UHIs are areas formed on any rural or urban area within the built environment that have higher temper-atures than nearby

rural areas. As defined by James A. Voogt, an urban heat island is the name gievn to de-scribe the characteristic warmth of both the atmosphere and surfaces in cities (urban areas) compared to their (nonurbanized) surround-ing areas. There a three different types of heat islands includes canopy layer heat island (CLHI), boundary layer heat island (BLHI),

Figure 5: The phenomenon of Urban Heat IslandSource: Earth Untouched


and surface heat island (SHI). The urban atmo-sphere is warmed through CLHIs and BLHIs. Urban surface areas are created with SHIs. The canopy extends from the surface of the ground to the average building height.

Cities are often referred to as an urban heat island as a dome of high temperatures cover an urban or industrial area from layers of hot air forming from buildings, parking lots, and roads.

The Heat Island Effect

The heat island effect is caused by a lack of vegetation and soil moisture within a city’s urban area. A dome of air is formed over city causing the temperature in that area to be high-er than that of the surroundig areas. The land surface in most cities and towns abosrbs and stores heat. As sunlight is abosrbed by roads, parking lots, and buildings, the concept of evapotranspiration is altered. The energy from the sun elevates surface temperatures and the air which it comes into contact with.

The heat from the surface is carried into the atmosphere by way of convection.

As the temperature rises throughout the day, a dome of warm air forms over ther area. The temperature of the dome is approximately 40 °F to 45°F warmer than the ground level tempera-ture.

The effect of the UHI on a global average is very small due to the Earth’s total urbanized land area being minimal. the UHI effect is a direct result of urban areas containing a lack of vegetation and soil moisture.

UHIs are the result of the lack of tree cover, extensive paved surfacs, and dark roofs. As the city of Houston continues to grow and develop, the opportunity for urban heat islands increases. Other factors including motor vehicle enigines, air conditioning condensers, cooling towers for buildings, generators, power plants, and indus-trial processes are all common human induced contributors to urban heat island development.

13 Section Two

INTRODUCTION

As one of the fourth largest cities in the country, Houston is located in the flat Coastal Plains 50 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and classified as humid subtropical.

HISTORY OF HOUSTON’S CLIMATE

Houston’s climate is primarily hot and humid. As the seasons change, the temperatures are consistent with being warm and mild. The summer months are consisted of the period of June through August. the temperature is very hot and humid. The daily average temperature is usually around 95 °F. The autumn season occurs during the period of Septem-ber to November. Occassional cool fronts occure; however, the temperature usually falls between the upper 60s to lower 80s. Winters in Houston fluctu-ate. the temperatures are relatively mild. The cold-est month has been recorded as January. Although the temperature is slightly cooler this time of year, the winter season is subject to variations in the

Section Two: CITY OF HOUSTON’S CLIMATE OVERVIEW

Figure 6: Rate of Temperature Change in The United States 1901-2014Source: Environmental Protection Agency


temperature. Lastly, spring time allows the temperature to gradually rise and usually lasts from March to May. During the day, temperatures are warm with a mild cool down during nightfall.

On occcassion, the city is hit with severe weather conditions such as flooding, tropical storms, and hur-ricanes. The most common form of precipitation is rainfall. Houston experiences the most rain during the month of June.

Overall, history has proven that the city of Houston is one of the hottest cities in the southern region of the United States.

IMPACTS OF HOUSTON’S CLIMATE

According to scientists, the number of heat-related deaths and coastal storm-related losses will continue to increase for Texas As the climate continues to rise globally, the current conditions has a major impact on the city of Houston. Several debates have arisen re-garding the current global warming trend. The more nothing is done to improve the current global warming crisis, the city’s overall climate and weather conditions

Figure 7: Mean Annual Temperature in Texas from Legates and Willmott ClimatologySource: www.crwr.utexas.edu

15 Section Two

will continue to be affected.

Scientists have suggested that the larger the city, the greater the impacts of global climate change. As the concentrations of population intensifies, the heavily populat-ed cities will experience localized impacts from higher average and peak tempera-tures. Additionally, other weather realted conditions will be affected by the rise in temperatures.

With the steady increase in the pattern of growh and expansion, the population in the city of Houston will become more vul-nerable to the risks associated with global climate change.

TRANSPORTATION

The city of Houston is a commuter city that has an underutilized bus system. The amount of cars that are on the cities highways everyday contributes to climate change by releasing emissions into the

earth’s atmosphere. The more cars that are on the road, the hotter the streets becomes. The end result is the heat rising from the streets contrib-uting to warmer area temperatures. Keeping as many vehicles off of the highway as possible by carpooling or using the public transportation system can assist in reducing temperature by minimizing the amount of emissions released by vehicles.


Figure 8: Graph indicating tempreature change for the City of Houston during 2001-2014Source: NCDC.NOAA.gov

Figure 9: Developed land in Houston by percent surface area. Source: Cool Houston Plan Created in Illustrator by Zain Walkabout

LAND DEVELOPMENT

The City of Houston initiated the Cool Houston Plan in order to provide techniques for mitigating the heat island effect and implementing various technologies to reduce the rising temperatures throughout the city. According to the July 2004 Cool Houston Plan, the developed land within the city. According to the July 2004 Cool Houston Plan, the developed land within the city is consisted of either paved surfaces making up 29% or roof tops making up 21%. In most devel-oped areas, only 13% of the land consists of trees. As a result of such a high number of paved surfaces, the absorption of solar radition aides to the heat island effect. These paved surfaces includes roads, parking lots, driveways, sidewalks, and patios.

ENERGY

17 Section Two


AIR POLLUTION

19 Section Two

Figure 10: GIS map illustrating the boundaries of the City of Houston. Source: GIS application by Mahdi Zaire


Figure 11: Temperature Data a at Texas Southern UniversitySource: NCDC.NOAA.gov

Section Three: TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY CLIMATE HIGHLIGHTS

21 Section Three

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of Section Three: Texas Southern University Climate Highlights is to provide a brief summary of the climate statistical data and identify the potential hotspots throguhout the campus.

CLIMATE STATISTICSThe average temperature for the entire campus of TSU in the month of September is 93.9 °F and 88.2 °F in the month of October.

As seen in Figure 11, campus hotspots are lo-cated in the center of the campus near the football field and track area. According to the figure, the average temperature ranges from 96.33 to 101.8 °F (35.74 °C to 38.77 °C). These identified hot-spots are due largely to the lack tree and vegeta-tion coverage in the area. Additionally, there is less buildings and more paved surfaces near the rear of the campus cauing the temperatures to be elevated. Figures 12 illlustrates a closer image of the location of the campus hotspots.


Figure 12:Temperature of TSUSource: GIS map Created by Mahdi Zare

DENSITY SPECIFICATIONS

Density as it relates to planning, is the number of buildings in a given geographic area. In order to determine the campus hotspots, a GIS map was created to identify the density of all buldings, trees, and grass located on TSU’s campus (Fig-ures 13, 14, and 15). Building density consists of the amount of acrtual floor space availiable to occupy an area of land which the building is built. The higher the density of a building deter-mies the efficiency and efectiveness of the land use. Building desnity assits with lowering the campus temperature by providing shade to the ground’s surface. According to the map, the ma-jority of TSU’s least dense buildings are located within the center of the campus in the hotspot zone, while thos buildings that are more dense are located along the outter perimeter of the campus. Thus, the lower density of these buildings does not provide ample anough coverage to assist in reducing the campus’ temperature.

Additionally, there are less buildings located in the center of the campus and more paved surfaces near the rear of the campus cauing the tempera-tures to be elevated.

23 Section Three

Figure 12: Building DenistySource: GIS map Created by Mahdi Zare

Figure 13: Grass DenistySource: GIS map Created by Mahdi Zare

Figure 14: Tree DenistySource: GIS map Created by Mahdi Zare

SECTION FOUR: PROPOSED CAMPUS IMPROVEMENTS

TSU has made vast improvements to be a “greener” more sustainable campus. Within these improve-ments, paved lots and parking areas were replaced with green spaces encouraging sustainable commut-ing options. TSU has also implemented an on-site community garden where food is produced locally. To continue with the efforts to maintain a green school, TSU has taken an interest in the construction of green buildings. Green buildings are purposeful in that they decrease the usage of energy, water, and the production of CO2 throughout the school’s cam-pus. The construction, operation, and maintenance of buildings produce approximately 48 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. The production of GHGs impacts climate change and global warm-ing.

In efforts to achieve a more sustainable campus the following strategies are recommended: the installa-tion of impervious surfaces throughout the campus, increasing tree and vegetation coverage, and the in-stallation of green/cool roofs onto existing buildings.


ter recharge. The use of cool pavements will allow solar energy to be reflected, enhance water evaporation, and can be modified to remain cooler than most conventional surfaces. The benefits as-sociated with the implementation process include reduce stormwater runoff and improving water quality. Stormwater is soaked into the pavement and soil causing a cooling effect to the surface. Also, by cooling the runoff, impervious surfaces assists in eliminating temperature shock to nearby rivers, lakes, and streams.

From a recent article in the Seattle Times: “While urban areas cover only 3 percent of the U.S., it is estimated that their run-off is the primary source of pollution in 13 percent of rivers, 18 percent of lakes and 32 percent of estuaries.” Some of these pollutants include excess nutrients from fertilizers; pathogens pet waste; gasoline, motor oil, and heavy metals from vehicles; high sediment loads from stream bed erosion and construction sites,

25 Section Four

The construction, operation, and mainte-nance of buildings produce approximately 48 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The production of greenhouse gases impacts climate change and global warming. The construction of green buildings will reduce the carbon footprint of the campus and aide in its impact on air quality. In efforts to achieve a more sustainable campus the fol-lowing strategies are recommended: the in-stallation of impervious surfaces throughout the campus, increasing tree and vegetation coverage, and the installation of green/cool roofs onto existing buildings.

Impervious Surfaces

Impervious surfaces are an environmental concern because, with their construction, a chain of events is initiated that modifies urban air and water resources. The pavement materials seal the soil surface, eliminating rainwater infiltration and natural groundwa-

and waste such as cigarette butts, 6-pack holders and plastic bags carried by surges of stormwater. Impervious surface coverage can be limited by restricting land use density (such as number of homes per acre in a subdivision), but this approach causes land elsewhere (out-side the subdivision) to be developed, to ac-commodate growing population. Alternatively, urban structures can be built differently to make them function more like naturally pervi-ous soils; examples of such alternative struc-tures are porous pavements, green roofs and infiltration basins. Rainwater from impervious surfaces can be collected in rainwater tanks and used in place of main water. Additionally, the use of cool pavements will improve the comfort level in parking lots and playground areas. Impervious pavements deprive tree roots of aeration, eliminating the “urban for-est” and the canopy shade that would other-wise moderate urban climate. Because imper-vious surfaces displace living vegetation, they reduce ecological productivity, and interrupt atmospheric carbon cycling.

Figure 12: Examples of Impervious SurfacesSource: www.epa.gov


Increasing Tree and Vegetation Coverage

The use of vegetation and land cover-age is another strategy recommended to aid in decreasing the temperature at the university. Tree canopies are used in order to provide shade to the public while walking or socializing outdoors. Not only are they used to provide shade, the effect of evapotranspiration allow the trees to act as outdoor air conditioning for the public as well as air filters. There is a process that moves water through trees to provide a cooling effect into the air, simply put- it is a transfer of water from trees to the trees leaves and the end result are the leaves cooling off the area in which individuals are standing under. Another source that the trees pull from for the process of evapotranspiration from the earths soil.

Trees are a very simple, attainable means of reducing the effects. They act as

nature’s air conditioners. They help to cool the surrounding air in two ways: (a) trees provide shade, thereby keep-ing street and building surfaces cooler; and (b) trees use evapotranspiration to cool themselves and the surrounding air. Evapotranspiration is the process by which trees “transpire”, or perspire, so to speak, from both the leaves and the root systems. The result is, as the water evaporates it dissipates the heat in and around the tree which leads to cooler air in the area encompassing the tree. Trees, their leaves, and the soil around them act as natural filters for water purifica-tion. Leaves collect the dust that blows around the city on their leaves. This helps to reduce some of the air pollution. The dust, for the most part, remains on the leaves until it rains where upon it-washes to the ground. Trees naturally release oxygen which has great ben-efits to our health else well as reducing temperatures from becoming too hot in areas. Trees help by removing CO2 from

Figure 13: Photograph of TSU Tiger Walk illustrating tree canpoy conceptSource:

27 Section Four

the atmosphere and when CO2 levels are high, heat from the earth is trapped inside the atmosphere which is what creates what we all know as the greenhouse effect. The presence of trees help by removing dioxide and other gases from the atmosphere reducing heat lev-els and harmful levels of chemicals in the air.

Trees that can serve to cast shade come in all shapes and sizes, and for many different cli-mates and planting zones, so there are plenty of options to choose from. However, because most of us are very impatient, one of the most common requirements that people have in choosing varieties is that they be fast growing shade trees. Table 1 describes the best trees to use to help decrease the temperature at the campus’s hotspots.

Table 1: Annual benefits of planting treesSource: TPUFB of Dallas, 2010


Installing Green Roofs

The green roof effect has many similarities to tree canopies and how evapotranspiration plays a roles in cooling off areas where temperatures are ab-normally high and purifying the area from harm-ful gases. One of the major benefits in considering green roofs because it is known for covering some of hottest surfaces in an urban environment. Texas Southern University is located near in an area not far chemical factories and some of the cities most utilized commuter highways and green roofs can assist as a filter alleviating or reducing some of the smog and gasses created by the city’s transporta-tion system and industrial field. According to Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, “plants on horizontal and vertical surfaces are able to cool areas during hot summer months and reduce the Urban Heat Island effect”. Although Texas Southern University can reach intensely high temperatures during summer months, the Green Roof Effect has been utilized as a potential health benefit to and in reducing the heat

29 Section Four

Figure 14: Photograph of A green roof on the Baylor Research Institute in the Texas MedicalCenter provides intensive planting on top of this large structure.Source: Cool Houston Plan 2004

in the area.

The installation of solar panels and the utilization of solar power can reduce global warming. One of the greatest benefits of solar energy is that it does not release any harmful emissions into the air creat-ing the greenhouse effect and contributing to global warming which of course, increases temperatures to those of “above normal”. Some of the outdoor lighting at Texas Southern already uses panels to soak up energy from the sun and is used at night time to light up the lights. The benefit: Not using energy powered by chemical plants which releases emissions and increases temperatures but uses en-ergy stored by the natural sun to power on.

In some cities, the flood waters get into combined sewers, causing them to overflow, flushing their raw sewage into streams. Polluted runoff can have many negative effects on fish, animals, plants and people. Impervious surfaces collect solar heat in their dense mass. When the heat is released, it rais-es air temperatures, producing urban “heat islands”, and increasing energy consumption in buildings. The warm runoff from impervious surfaces reduces dissolved oxygen in stream water, making life


Figure 15: Comparison og a gravel- ballasted roof and a green roofSource: EPA and www.eoearth.org

difficult in aquatic ecosystems.

Partly in response to recent criticism by municipalities, a number of concrete manu-facturers such as CEMEX and Quikrete have begun producing permeable materials which partly mitigate the environmental im-pact of conventional impervious concrete. These new materials are composed of vari-ous combinations of naturally derived solids including fine to coarse-grained rocks and minerals, organic matter (including living organisms), ice, weathered rock and precipi-tates, liquids primarily water solutions, and gases.

Businesses are continuously seeking ways to reduce their impacts and contribution to the urban heat island help reduce higher temperatures. As noted above, several miti-gation factors are included as acceptable strategies for consideration to assist with these efforts. These factors include imple-menting better paving strategies to reduce solar energy intake and improve stromwater usage, expanding the use and care of trees

and vegetation to help cool and provide green space, and installing green and cool roofs to produce energy savings and im-prove air quality. The benefits of these fac-tors should be understood and considered when implementing the process of reducing the urban heat island effect.

31 Section Four

University Plans

In order to create a more sustainable campus, TSU has adopted the Campus Greening Initiative which promotes efforts to implement environmental literacy within the campus and the surrounding community. The main objective of the initiative is to allow students, faculty, and staff to demon-strate best practies in environmental sustainability by partaking in projects which focuses primarily on the ecological footprint of TSU. These projects will serve as hands-on opportuniies to aide in the sustainability of the campus.

The initiative was started by the MickeyLeland Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability.The purpose of the initiative is to allow students to learn the benefits of greening their campus and becoming eager to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.

The inititive seeks to provide a countless number of methods and strategies to assist students with the process of greening the campus. A comprehensive sustainability ap-procah was taken in order to reduce energy consumption and cost, reduce associated greenhouse gases from building systems and transportation, manage water and waste water usage, improvie recycling efforts, and reduce hazardous waste and disposal.

By providing supplemental information such as pamphlets, articles, videos, and campus events tailored to cost-saving tips, TSU’s Campus Greening Initaitive plans to educate others of the effects of going green on cam-pus.

COMMUNITY PLANS

Figure 16: TSU campus Sustainability DaySource: www.mlc.tsu.edu


Figure 17: Recommendations for green roof placement at Texas Southern UniversitySource: GIS Aerial Map- Created by Aries Milo

33 Section Four

Figure 19: Photograph of TSU Tiger Walk illustrating tree canpoy conceptSource: Aries Milo

Figure 20: Proposed vision of “Tiger Walk”area on TSU’s campusSource: Sketchup Photo created by Talal

The campus of Texas Southern University land-scaping is already designed with canopies, how-ever, it’s only on the main part of the campus located along what is known as the “Tiger Walk.” By implementing this greening effect, there is a high potential to reduce the temperatures at and aroudn the campus’ football field where the known hot spot has been identified. Figure 18 illustrates the current tree canopy concept along the “Tiger Walk”. Figure 19 illustrates the implementation of additional trees and vegetation to reduce tempera-tures in this area of campus.


35 Section Four

Figure 21: Current conditions of football fied and track area on TSU’s campusSource: Photo Taken by Talal

Figure 22: Proposed vision of football fied and track area on TSU’s campusSource: Sketchup Photo created by Talal

Businesses are continuously seeking ways to reduce their impacts and contribution to the urban heat island help reduce higher temperatures. As noted above, several mitigation factors are included as acceptable strategies for consideration to assist with these efforts. These factors include implementing better paving strategies to reduce solar energy in-take and improve stromwater usage, expanding the use and care of trees and vegetation to help cool and provide green space, and installing green and cool roofs to produce energy savings and improve air

Section Five: CONCLUSION


Figure 23: Proposed vision of central student center area on TSU’s campusSource: Sketchup Photo created by Talal

quality. The benefits of these factors should be understood and considered when implementing the process of re-ducing the urban heat island effect

37 Section Five

quality. The benefits of these factors should be understood and considered when implementing the process of re-ducing the urban heat island effect

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