Urban heat island: diagnosis as an urban environmental management tool for the city of Santarém (PA)

Abstract

Urban climate studies are not always present in legal planning instruments, often being limited to regional climatology. This is the case of the Master Plan and afforestation of Santarém, which does not take into account weather data. The central hypothesis of this paper is that, with the expansion of the urban network in the Santarém-Curuá-Una and Santarém-Alter do Chão regions, the temperature gradient between the urbanized area and its surroundings tends to increase, causing the formation / intensification of islands. Urban Heat and impacts on the environmental comfort of the population. The objective of this research was to analyze the microclimatic variations in the spatiotemporal scale and the identification of Urban Heat Islands - ICU, using surface data, in Santarém (PA). This city is the third largest in the state, both in territorial dimensions and population. Temperature and air humidity were measured along two transects using a digital thermo-hygrometer, totaling 31 collection points. The measurements were taken on January 28 and 29, 2016, between 9h and 21h. The study concluded that Santarém has high temperatures throughout the day and significant temperature differences between sites with different concentrations of buildings and paving, thus proving the formation of Heat Islands. We can also highlight that the pattern of spatial variation of air temperature and relative humidity shows that the city of Santarém already configures thermo-hygrometric variation of urban centers, even having proximity to rivers, streams and forests. In the region of Santarém-Alter do Chão, the temperature of the rural area was lower when compared to urban, which results in the formation of Urban Heat Island, with strong and very strong intensity at all times analyzed. This implies a greater attention of public policies focused on this area, since in the Draft of the Santarém Master Plan Revision Bill (2017) this area is of urban expansion. It is recommended that public afforestation policies be developed and that permits for new subdivisions and ordinances include green areas in their projects, as well as policies aimed at the maintenance and remediation of permanent protection areas along the streams and lakes in this area. . Chances are that the intensity of Urban Heat Island will increase and negatively impact the environmental comfort of the population.