A team of researchers based in the United Arab Emirates and United States is working to create more energy-efficient ways to help Abu Dhabi’s buildings stay cool.

1. RESEARCHERS COLLABORATE
TO REDUCE "HEAT ISLAND"
EFFECT
BY GUMMI FRIDRIKSSON

2. A team of researchers
based in the United
Arab Emirates and
United States is working
to create more energy-
efficient ways to help
Abu Dhabi’s buildings
stay cool.

3. The partnership began in
2007 to address the “heat
island” effect in which
cars, pavement, and
buildings in densely
developed cities can
increase the air and
surface temperatures
several degrees higher
than in the surrounding
rural areas.

4. Temperatures that
increase by as few as
two or three degrees
can result in
significantly higher
air-conditioning use
and energy expenses.

5. In Abu Dhabi,
researchers have
found that the heat
island phenomenon
is responsible for as
much as 15 percent
of the emirate’s
annual cooling load.

6. Researchers from the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and the Masdar
Institute of Science and
Technology are now
constructing a microclimate
model of downtown Abu
Dhabi to study how
innovative heat-island
mitigation methods could
work.

7. The model, one of the first in
the world to integrate
microclimate effects and
urban energy consumption,
also will guide city planners
in the design of urban parks,
streets, and neighborhood
orientations to reduce the
heat island effect.