ABSTRACT
Urbanization is tied in with the replacement of natural surfaces by artificial construction materials whose thermal properties are notably different. Urban areas generally have higher solar radiation absorption and greater thermal capacity and conductivity. These differences between the urban and rural areas contribute to the development of the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon (Oke 1982; Voogt and Oke 2003; Weng and Lu 2008), which is mostly profound during nighttime. Sometimes, in the morning and at midday, an urban heat sink-also called a negative heat island-may be observed, which is considered a brief stage in the development of the UHI that occurs due to differences in the urban-rural warming rates (Oke 1987).
