Urban heat islands – EPICEA Project

Îlots de chaleur urbain - Projet Epicea

The results of the Epicea project (Multidisciplinary study of the impact of climate changes  on the Parisian conurbation), which began in 2008, were presented on 25 October 2012 at the three day event organised by the City of Paris  Journées Parisiennes de l’Energie et du Climat,. The Epicea project was carried out jointly by Météo-France and the Scientific and Technical Centre of Buildings (CSTB) in partnership with Apur, in the context of the research programme “Paris 2030”.

The EPICEA project's objective is to assess the impact of climate changes on the Parisian conurbation and more particularly to analyse the phenomenon of “urban heat islands”, which are found in densely urbanised zones, and are due notably to the geometry of towns and the waterproofing of surfaces. The effects of a number of theoretical, adaptation scenarios for urban heat islands in identical weather conditions to those of the 2003 heatwave  in  Paris, have been quantified in order to calculate the effectiveness of the recommended adaptation measures.
To achieve this the climatologists at Météo-France first analysed the effects of the 2003 heatwave on Paris, by examining a detailed description of the physical characteristics of the built up environment, established by the CSTB in close co-operation with Apur, which lists both the urban form and the properties of materials. In the third part of the study, “Links between urbanism and the urban climate”, Apur particularly participated in comparing the effects of the City of Paris' various development scenarios: changing the radiative properties of exterior walls and roofs, greening with revegetation,  humidification of roads. It appears that by combining the three measures the intensity of urban heat islands can be diminished by an average of 1° to 2° during a heatwave, while temperatures in the capital will rise by 3.5° to 5° by the end of the century.
Apur will pursue this line of thought with the publication of the first part of a study on urban heat islands at the end of 2012.

Resources

Documents to download

  • EPICEA Project-Complete report

    Format : pdf, 2.21 MB
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  • EPICEA Project-Summary

    Format : pdf, 951.07 KB
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