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: toshiaki@nies.go.jp

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)