Abstract
Many Mediterranean cities are currently experiencing unprecedented growth. Beyond their postcard images with charming architecture and timeless harmony, these cities have an urgent need to tackle the challenges of modernity. Their unrestricted sprawl to meet population growth and economic expansion comes at the expense of natural ecosystems and possibly contributes to the rise in temperatures locally leading to an urban heat island (UHI) in cities. Particularly, Casablanca, the largest city in Morocco, has recently undergone an important urban expansion as a result of a demographic explosion and a strong anthropic pressure, hence the need to address the impact of urban growth on its climate.
This paper aims to assess the UHI in the city of Casablanca, compare its intensity between day and night, and finally study through the different climatic changes of the four seasons.
For this, we conduct an analysis of thermal data over several temporalities: the day and the night, the equinoxes and the solstices of the four seasons and finally over a decade. Thermal data was obtained from the satellite instrument MODIS. The analysis across these temporalities leads to a series of interpretations related to several factors.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Gago, E. J. (2013). The city and urban heat islands: A review of strategies to mitigate adverse effects. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 25(C), 749–758.
Montavez, J. P. (2000). A study of the urban heat island of Granada. International Journal of Climatology, 20, 899–911.
Oke, T. R. (1982). The energetic basis of the urban heat island. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 108(455), 1–24.
Oleson, K. W., Monaghan, A., Wilhelmi, O., Barlage, M., Brunsell, N., Feddema, J., Hu, L., & Steinhoff, D. F. (2005). Interactions between urbanization, heat stress, and climate change. Climatic Change, 129, 525–541.
Oke, T. R. (1981). Canyon geometry and the nocturnal Urban Heat Island. International Journal of Climatology, 10, 237–245.
Oke, T. R., Johnson, G. T., Steyn, D. G., & Watson, I. D. (1991). Simulation of surface urban heat islands under ‘ideal’ conditions at night part 2: Diagnosis of causation. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 56(4), 339–358.
Swaid, H. (1993). Urban climate effects of artificial heat sources and ground shading by buildings. International Journal of Climatology, 13(7), 797–812.
Stanhill, G., & Kalma, J. D. (1995). Solar dimming and urban heating at Hong Kong. International Journal of Climatology, 15, 933–941.
Nasrallah, H. A., Brazel, A. J., & Balling, R. C. (1990). Analysis of the Kuwait city Urban Heat Island. International Journal of Climatology, 10, 401–405.
Moreno-Garcia, M. C. (1994). Intensity and form of the urban heat island in Barcelona. International Journal of Climatology, 14, 705–710.
Jones, P. D., Groisman, P. Y., Coughlan, M., Plummer, N., Wong, W.-C., & Karl, T. R. (1990). Assessment of urbanization effects in time series of surface air temperature over land. Nature, 347, 169–177.
Lee, H. Y. (1984). An application of NOAA AVHRR thermal data to the study of the Urban Heat Island. Atmospheric Environment, Part B. Urban Atmosphere, 27(1), 1–13.
Casablanca Monograph. (2010). Office of the High Commissioner for Planning. Casablanca: Grand Casablanca Regional Office.
Nakata, C. M., & de Souza, L. C. L. (2013). Verification of the influence of urban geometry on the nocturnal heat island intensity. Journal of Urban and Environmental Engineering, 7(2), 286–292.
Yang, J., Wang, Z.-H., Chen, F., Miao, S., Tewari, M., Voogt, J., & Myint, S. (2015). Enhancing hydrologic modeling in the coupled Weather Research and Forecasting − urban modeling system. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 155(1), 87–109.
Wang, Z.-H. (2014). A new perspective of urban-rural differences: The impact of soil water advection. Urban Climate, 10, 19–34.
Wand, Z. H. (2017). Thermodynamic characterisation of urban nocturnal cooling. Heliyon, 3, e00290.
Chow, W. T. L., Brennan, D., & Brazel, A. J. (2012). Urban heat island research in Phoenix Arizona: Theoretical contributions and policy applications. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 93(4), 517–530.
Song, J., & Wang, Z.-H. (2016). Evaluating the impact of built environment characteristics on urban boundary layer dynamics using an advanced stochastic approach. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 16, 6285–6301.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for the Royal Center for Remote Sensing for having provided the necessary satellite images for the study as well as an internship for an author.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
El Ghazouani, L., Mansour, M., Lachir, A., Smiej, M.F., Laaroussi, N. (2020). The Diurnal and Nocturnal Aspects of Urban Heat Island During the four Seasons—Case of Casablanca. In: Sayigh, A. (eds) Green Buildings and Renewable Energy. Innovative Renewable Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30841-4_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30841-4_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-30840-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-30841-4
eBook Packages: EnergyEnergy (R0)