Livable Cities: Urban Heat Islands Mitigation for Climate Change Adaptation Through Urban Greening

Livable Cities: Urban Heat Islands Mitigation for Climate Change Adaptation Through Urban Greening elucidates on livability in urban areas, providing readers with definitions and indicators of what makes a city livable. It comprehensively introduces the urban heat island effect (UHIE) and offers strategies for mitigating high surface temperatures in metropolitan areas and adapting to climate change (CC). The coverage highlights the linkage between UHIE and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the socio-economic impacts of urban heat islands (UHIs), their effect on livability for citizens, and the costs and benefits of mitigating UHI. In addition, it encompasses background information about the problems and challenges that megacities face in the 21st century, followed by the cooling benefits that can be achieved from the different types of urban green coverage (UGC), whether conventional or innovative. 

 

The book presents case studies on six cities that have successfully applied UGC: Chicago (United States), Curitiba (Brazil), Stuttgart (Germany), Tokyo (Asia), Melbourne (Australia), and Johannesburg (South Africa). Additional case studies illustrate UHIE mapping in greater Cairo, Egypt, and Rome, Italy, to determine hot spot areas that need interventions and prioritization of UGC. Highlights also include the role of blue and green infrastructures in creating livable cities in the post-COVID-19 world, trends of bi-correlation between urban green spaces (UGSs), UGC, and COVID-19, and global patterns of UGSs to shape better healthy, sustainable, and resilient cities.

 

• Explains urban heat islands, their causes, and strategies for climate change adaptation to create livable cities; 
• Highlights the role of urban green coverage in post-COVID-19 regulations in shaping more livable, sustainable, and resilient cities.
• Explores ways to reduce the urban heat island effect by exploiting urban greening to mitigate high temperatures in large cities like Cairo and Rome.

Prof. Dr. Mohsen Aboulnaga is a Professor of Sustainable Built Environments with the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University, Egypt. He has thirty-seven years of experience working in higher education, government, senior management, and consultancy on the issues of sustainable cities, climate change adaptation, sustainable development, and energy policies. Professor Aboulnaga is a senior expert on sustainable urban development (SUD), including green and smart cities and green buildings. His areas of competency encompass strategy planning, policy development, low-carbon society, and sustainable energy. Other areas of expertise include executive capacity building for local governments and coaching and training on strategic planning and leadership, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reporting, innovation, and urban farming in cities. Professor Aboulnaga is an associate member of the European Sustainable Development Network (ESDN) Association, Austria (2010-present); asenior policy expert at the UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab., Paris, France; a member of the Asian Institute for Environmental Research & Energy (A.NERGy), Incheon National University, South Korea (since 2015); and a registered expert with UNEP and ESCWA (since 1997). He has also been a selected member of the UrbanFarm Scientific Committee since 2019 and a member of the Jury of the UF Challenge in 2020 and 2021 at the University of Bologna Alma Mater Studiorum, Italy. Professor Aboulnaga has developed many Concept Notes for leading international organizations, namely the ENI ZOHR Sustainability Initiative (2019), European Union (EU) funded projects (2018-2019),  and SUD for The Union for the Mediterranean – UfM (2017). He has been appointed by the European Union and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) as a Senior Adviser and National Expert on the “Clean Energy Savings Mediterranean Cities (CES-MED) project (2015-2018) – a funded project by the European Union (2011-2018). Professor Aboulnaga has also been appointed a Senior Expert by the Human Dynamics Consortium–KG and developed the CES-MED National Recommendation Report (NRR) on Sustainable Urban and Energy Savings Actions (SUESA) for Egypt as part of the CES-MED project (2015). He has been appointed by the EU and MOFA (May 2016) as the National Expert of CES-MED project in Egypt – Associated to Transitions Sustainability Consultant in Paris, France, and developed the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) for two cities. In 2020, Professor Aboulnaga organized with the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, and the University of Florence, Italy, the international design competition “HOME-KIT Sustainable Modular Houses for Slum Dwellers amidst COVID-19”, July 2021, Lisbon. Prof. Aboulnaga is the author of four books published by Springer and 40 chapters in books published by Springer and Elsevier. He has also been an invited keynote speaker to more than 400 international and regional conferences, seminars, workshops, and training programs. He has over 180 international publications and presentations and has reviewed 80 articles for many international journals. He holds a Ph.D. in Energy Efficiency in Built Environments from the University of Leeds, UK, and an M.Sc. and  BSc. (Arch.) from Cairo University.

 

Prof. Antonella Trombadore is a Professor of Environmental Design at the Department of Architecture (DIDA), University of Florence, Italy, and at the University of Tirana (Albania) since 1999. She is a qualified Associate Professor (2018), a researcher RTDb in Energy Management, and a qualified architect in sustainable and green architecture, responsive design, resilient cities, and sustainable immersive tourism. She is the Director of Research Laboratory BeXLab Building Environmental Experience, responsible for stimulating the interdisciplinary approach of Living Lab and the participatory process for building retrofit and human-centered adaptive architectural design, and a team leader of several European Research Projects in the field of architectural integration of innovative solutions for energy retrofitting action, NZBs, and integrated smart processes in the Mediterranean climatic and cultural context. She is the Technical Coordinator of the international Post-Graduate Master Course SUARCH – Sustainable Architecture. Professor Trombadore is the author of numerous scientific contributions, more than  40 articles in reputed journals, three books, and more than 35 book chapters. She holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in energy management in the building and built environment.

 

 

Mona Mostafa has been a Lecturer Assistant at Modern Sciences and Arts University – MSA  since 2015. She is a part-time Lecturer Assistant in the Architecture Engineering & Technology (AET) program with the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt. Mrs.Mostafa is also a professional architect and a researcher in the field of environmental design, cemented by nine years of experience in higher education, sustainable urban development, and climate change. Her areas of competency include sustainable built environment, energy efficient buildings, renewable energy, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Mrs. Mostafa has several publications, including a chapter in the book Sustainable Vernacular Architecture: How the Past Can Enrich the Future (Springer, 2019), a conference paper at the World Renewable Energy Conference 2018, and a paper in the journal Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability. She holds a Master’s degree (M.Sc.) in Sustainable Environmental Design (2019) and a Bachelor of Science in AET (2014) from Cairo University, plus an MBA degree from Brooklyn Academy in Egypt.

 

Ahmed Abouaiana holds a Ph.D. in Planning, Design, and Technology of Architecture at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. He obtained a master’s degree (M.Sc.) in Architectural Engineering, a Diploma of Higher Studies in Urban Design and Community Development from Cairo University, and a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Sc.) from Alexandria University. He participates in teaching activities as a lecturer of architecture at various universities and conducts scientific editorial activities for numerous academic journals. He has been a professional architect since 2003 and founded an architecture firm. In addition, he is a sustainability consultant for architectural and engineering firms and construction companies to map out sustainable transition strategies, resulting in being granted the Facilities Management Firm Award 2023 at the BIG Five Egypt Impact Awards. Moreover, he is a member of the Italian Society of Architectural Technology (SITdA) and the Society of Egyptian Architects. He has many scientific contributions and publications, including 15 articles and conference papersand five chapters published in Springer books.