ABSTRACT
The average global temperature is said to have risen by 0.74°C over the last 100 years. Tokyo, New York, and Paris have undergone relatively large increases in temperature (see Figure 5.1); the average temperature in Tokyo in particular has increased by approximately 3°C in 100 years (Mikami et al., 2003). The rise in temperatures of cities relative to the global average temperature is thought to be due to the effects of urbanisation. Though the rise in temperatures has slowed down in Paris since 1950, Tokyo has shown a consistent temperature rise. The population of Paris has been falling since reaching a peak of approximately 2.9 million in the 1950s, though a slight increase in recent years has brought it up to 2.17 million as of 2007. On the other hand, the population of Tokyo has increased by 8 times in the twentieth century with an era of high economic growth from 1950 to 1970 (1900: 1.5 million; 2000: 12.1 million), making the heat island phenomenon become more marked.
