Earth's Climate question

Question

You have just been hired as urban planner for a large city in an arid, hot climate with an urban heat island problem. The city council wishes to know your best idea for reducing urban heat. What is your idea, and how will it cause a lowering of urban temperatures?

Answer 1

https://www.brighthubengineering.com/building-construction-design/42981-what-are-urban-heat-islands/

Urban heat island problem defined:

A. making the problem worse

1. many paved surfaces absorbing the sun's heat. dark colored streets and buildings also absorbing heat
2. pollution from cars, factories
3. higher energy demands from power plants due to increased AC demands

B. not making the problem better

1. tall buildings impeding wind flow which helps naturally cool temps
2. less trees and shaded areas, which affect the temperature, something also with transpiration and evaporation. need to think more about how this affects arid temperatures

Solutions:

1. Repaving the roads with alternate materials in a lighter color. realistically this has to be a slow and steady process
2. planting more trees and plants (all depends on what survives in this arid climate) Perhaps rooftop garden
3. analysis of city layout to see if relocating certain buildings would increase airflow significantly
4. total revamp of public transit system to decrease dependency on cars, which contribute to fossil fuels
5. investment in solar power energy to decrease the use of fossil fuel generating power plants
6. laws about construction materials used in new buildings

How to incentivize people to make the changes:

1. tax rebates/incentives for rebuilding roofs in more friendly materials
2. making the economics of the solar energy better than the economics of power plant energy
3. penalties/fines for rebuilding roofs with bad materials/in ways that contribute to the problem, not solution
4. tax incentives/plant subsidies for planting around the area outside the buildings
5. tariffs on materials imported that absorb a lot of heat (brick, asphalt, etc)

Lastly, do some research to see if there are any studies that show how temperature changes if the aforementioned changes are implemented