Assessing the Existence of the Atmospheric Urban Heat Island over Kano Metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract -The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect is a phenomenon of higher atmospheric and surface temperatures occurring in urban areas than in surrounding rural areas happening majorly as a result of urbanisation and industrialisation. This study investigated the occurrence of Atmospheric UHI in Kano metropolis. Data utilised in this study includes; temperature records for the period of 1980 – 2015 for the urban city centre and 1985 – 2015 for the sub-urban city centre sourced from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and Department of Geography, Bayero University, Kano respectively. The Linear trend analysis was used in analysing the trends of temperature distribution in the study area and the combination chart was used in comparing the temperature data of the urban and sub-urban city centres. Results obtained showed that temperature distributions has been on the increase for both the urban and sub-urban city centres, with that of the urban city centre being faster than that of the sub-urban centres. The urban city centre exhibit higher atmospheric temperature compared to its sub-urban counterpart thus, indicating the presence of Atmospheric UHI in Kano metropolis. The study concluded that the UHI exists in Kano metropolis and is more concentrated in the urban city centre. The study recommended massive afforestation programmes, adoption of green and cool roofing technologies, and accommodation of green areas and open spaces into cities physical plans due to their cooling potentials as some of the ways of adapting and mitigating to the impacts of UHI