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
(1997-1999) 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 305-8506, Japan; e-mail: [email protected]
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
Agency1
Dr. T.
Ichinose2
Nothing Fundamental knowledge on urban thermal
environmental issues for regional autonomies in
Japan
Environment
Agency (2000)
2001 MoE Prof. Dr. T.
Ojima3
Tokyo, Nagoya,
Sendai
Fundamental surveys on urban climate
Numerical simulation on urban climate with
UCSS4 and on HIP5
MoE (2001a)
2001 MoE Dr. T.
Ichinose
Nothing Inventory of technologies for improvement of
urban thermal environment
MoE (2001b)
2001 Ministries’ League (ML) on UHI (MoE, MLIT6, METI7) was established.
2002 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.
Ojima
Tokyo, Minato
ward in Tokyo
Evaluation on the effect of individual
counteraction with UCSS (Head: Dr. Y. Ashie)
Computing urban climate in 1930s
Advanced Klimaatlas in Tokyo (Head: Dr. T.
Ichinose)
Urban ventilation lanes in Japanese cities
(Published
soon)
2003 MoE Prof. Dr. M.
Moriyama8
Sendai Applying the procedures experienced in Tokyo
to a local autonomy
Fundamental surveys on urban climate
including numerical simulation in CFD method
Klimaatlas in Sendai
(Published
soon)
2003 MLIT Prof. Dr. Y.
Maruta9
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
Scale
Effect (Nighttime
and Daytime)
Cost Responsibility
(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
green
district - urban middle - long A and A middle company - autonomy
…….. …….. …….. …….. …….. ……..
(3) improvement of urban structure
…….. …….. …….. …….. …….. ……..
Arrangement of urban ventilation
path
district - urban middle - long B and B high autonomy
…….. …….. …….. …….. …….. ……..
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. 241+
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, 491-495.
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. 271+ (in German)