Mitigating Urban Heat Islands by Vegetated Infrastructure

Climate change has a strong negative impact on Bangladesh despite the country having an insignificant carbon footprint. With rapid urbanization, Dhaka — the capital of Bangladesh — is progressively falling short of sustaining outdoor life due to the Urban Heat Island (UHI), which is one of the most documented phenomena of urban climate change.

Adding vegetated infrastructure by planting trees in the city can be an effective solution to reduce the heat island effect in the context of Dhaka. For this study, Purbacol — a residential area of Dhaka — will be selected and through ENVI-met software simulation, the impact on the outdoor temperature will be observed by planting trees on three levels: (1) at road level; (2) in green walls on the buildings; (3) and on the green roofs.

This research analyzes three interventions that can effectively reduce the UHI effect. The effectiveness of these three interventions will be analyzed to generate recommendations for the tropical city in order to re-establish outdoor life in Dhaka,