Urban Land Use Changes: Effect of Green Urban Spaces Transformation on Urban Heat Islands in Baghdad

Urban sprawl has led to changes in landscaping. For instance, open areas and green urban spaces (GUSs)1 are replaced by buildings, streets, and infrastructure. Permeable and wet surfaces have also been transformed into non-permeable and dry surfaces. This, unfortunately, creates a major problem known as Urban Heat Islands (UHI). The rise in temperature makes the urban centres warmer when compared to their rural outlying areas. This affects the environmental goodness, energy consumption demands, quality of wellbeing. However, there is limited knowledge concerning the change in the use of GUSs, the relationship between the area of ​​these spaces, and the buildings formation on the exacerbation of the UHI in the cities. The research study aim is to assess the impact of the area of GUSs and the building s formation on the exacerbation of the (UHI) in Baghdad city. The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of an integrated approach for open green spaces by reviewing city‘s experience with a main focus of environmental sustainability, cooler temperature, and thermal comfort. The research selected three typical GUSs in Baghdad (Ziyouna) as a case study. Those spaces were transformed into various types of buildings for different uses. The UHI impact is identified and compared in two scenarios (GUSs and added building) using computer climate simulation (ENVI-met) tool. The tool also assessed and measured surfaces and air temperature (CLUHI & SUHI) at different points in the selection of three typical models. The results demonstrated several factors combined with the change of urban land uses that are responsible for exacerbation of UHI in terms of buildings‘ height, formation, ground coverage, and construction including pavement materials and colour.