Article An Estimation of the Anthropogenic Heat Emissions in Darwin City Using Urban Microclimate Simulations

Abstract

The energy consumption due to urbanization and man-made activities has resulted in production of waste, heat, and pollution in the urban environment. These have further resulted in undesirable environmental issues such as the production of excessive Anthropogenic Heat Emissions (AHE), thus leading to an increased Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. The aim of this study was to estimate the total AHE based on the contribution of three major sources of waste heat generation in urban environment, i.e., buildings, vehicular traffic, and human metabolism. Furthermore, a comparison of dominating anthropogenic heat factor of Darwin with that of other major international cities was carried out. Field measurements of microclimate (temperatures, humidity, solar radiation, and other factors of climate measures) were conducted along Smith Street, Darwin City. Then, surveys were conducted to collect information regarding the buildings, vehicle traffic and Human population (metabolism) in the study area. Each individual component of AHE was calculated based on conceptual framework of anthropogenic heat model developed within this study. The results showed that AHE from buildings is the dominant factor influencing the total AHE Darwin, contributing about to 87% to 95% of total AHE. This is followed by vehicular traffic (4–13%) and lastly, human metabolism (0.1–0.8%). The study also shows that Darwin gained an average of 990 Wm−2 solar power in a peak day. This study proves that building anthropogenic heat is the major dominating factor influencing the UHI in tropical urban climate.