CF and LCA as assessment methodologies for UHI

The present study deals with the effect of UHI on climatic changes. Some methods to assess the increase of GHG produced by an increase of urban temperature are proposed; mature and standardized indicators as well as Carbon Footprint (CF) and LCA are adopted. Such indicators will be suitable to assess both activities and products environmental impact related to UHI phenomenon; it will be seen that UHI determines a change on energy demand, thus a change on GHG release. GHG may be spatially displaced with respect to UHI. In particular ΔCF has been introduced as the difference between CF in an UHI-affected case and CF for an UHI-less case. The balance is carried out considering penalties and benefits due to UHI; penalties are the increment and benefits are the decrease on energy demands and CO2eq emissions. A first evaluation method of penalties and benefits is proposed. CF is chosen as indicator because it is already employed into the majority of assessment methodologies; hence it is already proved and tested. Also some regulatory acts exploit CF as valid indicator to regulate an Emission Trading System (ETS). A similar approach can be extended to LCA methodology to obtain a wider evaluation of environmental aspects especially concerning products. The proposed methods (CF and LCA) can be a helpful tool for policy and decision makers in order to get effective countermeasures against UHI. Also ΔCF effect into an ETS system is discussed. Furthermore, since benefits due to UHI tackling are accounted, countermeasures can be properly converted to an economical opportunity. Some study cases are reported.