The rapid economic development and urbanization the developing countries have experienced during the last several decades have brought upon dramatic environmental changes. The urban heat island phenomenon has been well documented and researched in developed countries and has been attributed to causing such problems as energy shortages, air pollution, and living condition deterioration in those countries. Urban heat island is just now beginning to be researched in large cities in developing countries. Due to the shortage of integrated ground monitoring systems and urban database resources, there has been little success in measuring and modeling urban heat islands in developing countries.

We have been experimenting with various observation techniques, analyzing data collected from Shanghai, the largest commercial and industrial city in China, and improving the database for numerical simulations on thermal environment since 1996. Through international collaboration, we have (1) established automated observation systems in Shanghai; (2) collected and analyzed first-hand climatic data from Shanghai to characterize urban heat islands; (3) gained the ability of remote-monitoring urban heat islands in Shanghai for a long term. In the process, we identified an integrated approach that utilizes remote sensing data and statistical data to construct the database for numerical simulations. We found that approach to be cost-effective and easy to implement in developing countries.

This paper illustrates our approach and presents several outcomes on the urban heat islands measured and predicted using ground monitoring systems and a meso-scale meteorological model. The results of observations and numerical simulations were compared. The results of our observations in Shanghai indicated that 1) the urban heat island effects have become more evident, and the heat island intensity was higher in fall and winter; 2) the heat island intensity grew between midnight and sunrise; and 3) the mean heat island intensity in Shanghai might reach 4�� at 0:00 in winter days and 1.7�� at 0:00 in summer days. Additionally, based on our numerical simulation results, we conclude that vegetation and energy savings are both helpful in mitigating urban heat island, with the former being more effective.