Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is a "hotspot" in more than one sense. Rubbing shoulders with cities like New York, Paris and Singapore when it comes to the travelled tourist´s favourite destinations, Dubai is at the same time fighting its so-called hotspots within this extremely fast-growing and high-tech city.

The Dubai Aerial Thermal Survey - the first step towards a greener and cooler Dubai
In the latter sense of the word, a hotspot is an overheated, urban area - thus also often referred to as an urban heat island (UHI) - which is significantly warmer than its surrounding areas. In short, the UHI phenomenon decreases air and water quality and has the potential to directly influence the health and welfare of urban residents.

Consequently, the Environment Department and the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department of the Dubai Municipality last year decided to embark on this environmental challenge. COWI's Mapping and Environment departments, in close partnership with aerial survey company Bluesky and Space Imaging Middle East, were hired as the first step in a major environmental venture that in the future will see “cool and green” initiatives being adopted in the hotspots of the emirate.

Locating hotspots with advanced aerial mapping technology
The tasks towards a greener and cooler Dubai included, among others, thermal mapping of the sources of excess heat across Dubai, done by employing the latest aerial mapping technology:

An aerial flyover was completed using a new generation thermal survey system, specifically designed for the geospatial market. The system includes a state of the art thermal survey camera, advanced navigation and positioning system and improved sensor control and user interface.

Covering more than 600 square kilometres of the emirate's area, as many as 30,000 aerial photos were taken to create a thermal map that now helps identify the temperature difference in different locations. The thermal cameras captured temperatures on the ground level in different colours, with red indicating the areas with highest temperatures, and green and blue medium and low temperatures respectively.

Subsequently, a series of analyses were conducted on the data to identify heat sources such as asphalt and building materials, prevalence of open spaces and heating, ventilation and air conditioning units.

UHI mitigation best practices
On the environmental side, COWI identified various short- and long-term UHI mitigation "best practices" for the municipality: What to do now and in the long run to reduce the urban heat islands phenomenon in Dubai.

COWI's environment team furthermore developed a strategy for Dubai Municipality to implement in order to develop their city in line with their overall vision of "creating an excellent city that provides the essence of success and comfort of living."

Various suggestions to lower temperatures 
COWI's mapping and analyses lead to various suggestions to reduce the high level of temperatures in the hotspots found on the thermal map. Field visits to the affected areas have been conducted, and more green initiatives have been planned to reduce the level of temperatures:

Painting house roofs in white to reflect the suns rays and planting trees around buildings and industrial establishments are just some of the methods that may be implemented in the future to reduce heat experienced in some parts of Dubai.