Urban Climate 31 (2020) 100542

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Urban Climate
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/uclim

Trade-off between urban heat island mitigation and air quality in

T
urban valleys
Juan J. Henao , Angela M. Rendón , Juan F. Salazar
⁎ ⁎

GIGA, Escuela Ambiental, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: The number of studies on urban cooling strategies has been continuously growing. A common
Urban heat island effects premise is that urban heat island (UHI) mitigation has a net beneficial effect on urban en-
Urban cooling vironmental quality and sustainability. Here we evaluate how UHI mitigation affects air quality
Urban valley in an idealized urban valley by means of large-eddy simulations. A passive tracer represents air
Urban air quality
pollution transport in three UHI mitigation scenarios and under two initial stability conditions.
Atmospheric stability
Contrary to the common premise, our results demonstrate that UHI mitigation can worsen air
quality in urban valleys, via the alteration of the mechanisms of air pollution transport. Our
results also show the theoretical possibility of finding moderate UHI mitigation strategies in
which UHI is reduced while limiting the impacts on air quality. A fundamental implication is that
this strategies should be explored through case-specific realistic simulations for guiding decision-
making in real systems. Large and often expensive urban transformations should not be ac-
complished under the generalized assumption that UHI mitigation improves environmental
quality. Building a more general understanding of the potential impacts of UHI mitigation, as
well as of the mechanisms behind, is a continuing challenge with important implications for
urban management and planning.

1. Introduction

A growing body of scientific literature indicates that urban heat island (UHI) mitigation, through urban cooling strategies, is being
increasingly considered as a measure for improving the quality and sustainability of urban environments (Gago et al., 2013;
Santamouris, 2014; Aleksandrowicz et al., 2017; Francis and Jensen, 2017; Saaroni et al., 2018). Frequently studied strategies for
urban cooling are oriented towards modifying the way in which cities are structured by introducing or modifying elements such as
green spaces, trees, albedo, pavement surfaces, vegetation, or building types and materials (Gago et al., 2013; Li and Norford, 2016;
Francis and Jensen, 2017; Pomerantz, 2018); or even more comprehensive urban design strategies such as the Water Sensitive Urban
Design (Coutts et al., 2013). From this perspective, surface temperature reduction is often regarded as an indicator of environmental
quality improvement related to the effectiveness of the UHI mitigation strategies (Santamouris, 2014; Tan et al., 2016; Ma et al.,
2017; Morini et al., 2018).
With over 50% of the world's land surface considered as complex terrain (Rotach et al., 2014), many urban areas are located
within complex terrains such as mountain valleys, i.e. urban valleys. The transport of air pollutants emitted from the surface of urban
valleys is strongly dependent on interactions between local-scale processes related to both static and dynamic factors. Topography is
the main static (time-invariant at scales relevant for air pollution studies and related decision-making) factor because of its role as an

⁎
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: jjose.henao@udea.edu.co (J.J. Henao), angela.rendon@udea.edu.co (A.M. Rendón).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2019.100542
Received 7 March 2019; Received in revised form 11 July 2019; Accepted 2 October 2019
2212-0955/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
J.J. Henao, et al. Urban Climate 31 (2020) 100542

impermeable barrier for atmospheric flows (Zardi and Whiteman, 2013). The dynamics of the atmospheric boundary layer and
thermally-driven flows are strongly affected by the topographical setting of complex terrains (De Wekker and Kossmann, 2015; Lang
et al., 2015; Wagner et al., 2015b; Serafin et al., 2018).
The ventilation of urban valleys is sensitive to the occurrence and subsequent evolution of low-level atmospheric stability, related
to temperature inversions (Rendón et al., 2014; De Wekker and Kossmann, 2015; Leukauf et al., 2016; Serafin et al., 2018). A stable
layer constitutes a thermodynamical barrier, which in combination with static topographical barriers, can strongly restrict the
transport mechanisms responsible for venting air pollutants out of urban valleys (Lehner and Gohm, 2010; Giovannini et al., 2014;
Rendón et al., 2014, 2015). Indeed, severe air pollution events have been related to the evolution of stability (inversion layers) in
cities located in complex terrain such as Santiago in Chile (Toro et al., 2019), Logan and Salt Lake in the United States of America
(Malek et al., 2006; Whiteman et al., 2014), Grenoble in France (Largeron and Staquet, 2016), and the Lanzhou valley in China
(Wang et al., 2016). Consistent with its relevance for air quality and associated public health, the evolution of stable (inversion)
layers in valleys has remained among the key research topics in mountain meteorology (Serafin et al., 2018).
The dynamics of air pollution transport mechanisms in urban valleys is sensitive to local-scale phenomena (e.g. those related to
the surface energy balance) which can be (inadvertently or not) altered by urban modifications (planned or not). For instance, the
destabilization of low-level stable layers (breakup of inversion layers) can occur as a result of the combined effect of two locally-
induced processes: the ascent of the stable layer bottom with the development of a convective boundary layer (CBL), and the descent
of the stable layer top with the removal of air beneath the stable layer by upslope flows (Whiteman and McKee, 1982). These
destabilization processes can be affected by UHI mitigation strategies, simply because they can alter the surface sensible heat flux
through modifications of the urban properties (Makar et al., 2006). In turn, a weakening of atmospheric destabilization (inversion
breakup) processes can result in large reductions of the total mass of pollutants (tracer) exported out of a valley (Leukauf et al., 2016).
A challenging situation for decision making arises when separate studies highlight contrasting (beneficial versus adverse) impacts
of UHI mitigation for the same urban environment. For instance, the City of Chicago has implemented a variety of UHI mitigation
measures that produced a noticeable impact on citywide albedo (Mackey et al., 2012). These measures include several hectares of
green roofs which, as a beneficial impact on air quality, have a strong potential to remove air pollutants: model estimates indicate
that around 20 ha of green roofs can remove about 1700 kg of air pollutants during one year in Chicago (Yang et al., 2008). However,
contrasting results have highlighted adverse air quality impacts of the same UHI mitigation measure. In particular, Sharma et al.
(2016) showed that green and cool roofs can have detrimental impacts on air quality in Chicago through multiple alterations of the
lower atmosphere dynamics, including reduced vertical mixing, a lower boundary layer depth, and weaker convective rolls. This
example highlights the need of considering the interactions between UHI mitigation and air quality impacts and, more importantly,
the continuing challenge of building a more general understanding of these impacts and the mechanisms behind (Taha, 2015; Yang
et al., 2015). Advancing this general understanding is crucial for informing decision-makers about the environmental quality and
sustainability of urban areas (Baklanov et al., 2018; De Wekker et al., 2018).
In the present study, we use Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) to investigate the impact of UHI mitigation on the daytime evolution of
the atmospheric flow field, and the associated mechanisms of air pollution transport in idealized urban valleys, under the influence of
different levels of atmospheric stability. A number of previous studies have shown that this type of idealized modelling approaches
are fundamental for advancing the quantitative understanding of atmospheric dynamics over complex and/or urban terrains (Serafin
and Zardi, 2010; Schmidli et al., 2011; Rendón et al., 2014; Leukauf et al., 2016). Below, we first present evidence of a trade-off
between UHI mitigation and air quality (Section 3.1), then we study the mechanisms behind this trade-off (Section 3.2), and finally
we discuss the implications for real urban valleys (Section 4) and conclude (Section 5).

2. Model and experiment design

2.1. Numerical model

The numerical simulations were performed with the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF), version 4.0 (Skamarock
et al., 2019). This model is supported by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR, United States of America), but it is a
true community model and, arguably, the world's most widely used numerical weather prediction model (Powers et al., 2017). We
implemented WRF in LES mode (WRF-LES), a common approach for studying atmospheric dynamics in idealized complex terrains
(e.g. Catalano and Moeng, 2010; Lehner and Whiteman, 2012; Burns and Chemel, 2014; Wagner et al., 2014; Leukauf et al., 2015).
WRF is a nonhydrostatic, fully compressible numerical model, which uses an Arakawa-C staggered grid with a terrain-following
hydrostatic-pressure vertical coordinate (Skamarock and Klemp, 2008). Time integration is done with a third-order Runge-Kutta
scheme, and advection of scalars and momentum with a fifth-order horizontal, and a third-order vertical schemes. Sub-grid scale
turbulence is parameterized using a turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) 1.5-order closure scheme (Deardorff, 1980) modified to account
for the effect of anisotropic grids (grid aspect ratio) on the mixing length (Scotti et al., 1993), such as in some previous successful
implementations of WRF-LES for complex terrains (e.g. Catalano and Moeng, 2010; Burns and Chemel, 2014). The diffusion coef-
ficient Ck in the sub-grid scale scheme is set to 0.10 (Moeng et al., 2007), and surface heat and momentum fluxes are computed with
the revised MM5 Monin-Obukhov scheme by Jiménez et al. (2012).

2.2. Topography and model domain

The 3-D model domain has 512×150×151 staggered grid points along the x, y, and z directions. The grid has a constant

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Fig. 1. Cross-section of the idealized urban valley topography (i.e. the x − z plane). Terrain is uniform in the y-direction (along-valley). An urban
area covers the entire valley floor (surface area below C1). The named volumes are used for the analysis.

horizontal resolution Δx = Δy = 50 m, while the vertical grid is stretched using a hyperbolic tangent function (Burns and Chemel,
2014) that provides decreasing resolution with increasing height (in the z-direction): Δz ≈ 20 m above the ground and Δz ≈ 100 m at
the top of the domain, which is fixed at 8000 m.
The terrain geometry represents an idealized valley, uniform in the y-direction (along-valley) and symmetric about the valley
center in the x-direction (across valley). The idealized topography (Fig. 1) includes two cosine-shaped slopes as described by
(Rampanelli et al., 2004; Rendón et al., 2014)

1, x x 0 > sx + vx
1 x x0 vx
z (x ) = h 1 cos , vx < x x 0 < sx + vx
2 sx
0, x x 0 < vx (1)
where z(x) is the height of the terrain above the valley floor (m), h is the maximum depth of the valley (h= 1000 m), x0 is the x
coordinate of the valley center, sx is the width of the slopes (sx= 8000 m), and vx is the half-width of the valley floor (vx=2300 m). In
addition, two plateaus (2500 m-length) are included in the modelling domain in order to have the lateral boundaries far from the top
of the slopes.

2.3. Initial and boundary conditions

All simulations are initialized with an atmosphere at rest and a constant potential temperature gradient ∂θ/∂z. Two stability levels
are considered, given by ∂θ/∂z = 1 K km−1 (low) and ∂θ/∂z = 3 K km−1 (high). Initial surface potential temperature and pressure are
set to 290 K and 1000 hPa, respectively. We limit our study to a dry atmosphere and neglect the Coriolis effect.
Periodic lateral boundary conditions are applied on horizontal x and y directions. This is possible due to the characteristics of the
idealized valley: uniform in the along-valley direction (y) and symmetric in the across-valley direction (x), with boundaries far from
the top of the slopes. Further, the definition of periodic boundary conditions is consistent with our focus on local-scale phenomena
because they are tightly related to decision-making at the urban valley level (e.g. decisions related to urban modification and its
impact on local atmospheric dynamics). The uppermost 2 km of the domain are covered with an implicit Rayleigh damping layer
(Klemp et al., 2008) to avoid unrealistic reflection of upward-propagating gravity-waves, with a damping coefficient of 0.2 s−1.

2.4. UHI mitigation scenarios

In all cases, the valley surface is divided into homogeneous areas of urban and rural land cover, which can differ only in their
surface forcing (sensible heat flux). Representing UHI as differences in surface sensible heat flux has been implemented in previous
studies (Wang, 2009; Zhang et al., 2014). An idealized diurnal cycle of sensible heat flux is defined through the function (Rendón
et al., 2014)
1 2
Qh (x , t ) = QS (x ) 1 cos t ,
2 T (2)
−2
where x is the cross-valley coordinate, Qh(x, t) is the space-time varying flux of sensible heat in W m , QS(x) is a maximum reference
value depending on whether the surface at x is urban (QS(x) = Qu W m−2) or rural (QS(x) = Qr = 100 W m−2), t is the elapsed time,
and T is the total time of simulation (T = 12 h). There is no dependence of Qh(x, t) on y because of the homogeneity of the valley in

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that direction. The prescribed sensible heat flux does not consider effects such as topographic shading, which can lead to spatial
variability in sensible heat flux in valleys (Rotach et al., 2008). However, the relevance of topographic shading depends on the
characteristics of specific valleys, such as its geographic location, axis orientation or valley width (e.g. Colette et al., 2003; Rendón
et al., 2015), and it is not necessarily relevant for the mechanisms of air pollution transport in tropical valleys, specially near the
equator (Rendón et al., 2015).
The urban area covers the entire valley floor (Fig. 1). Five UHI mitigation scenarios are defined through the Qu value. The focus is
given to three scenarios, with the default UHI (no-mitigation) based on the typical values for urban and rural areas reported in Fan
et al. (2017). First, a no-mitigation scenario in which Qr < < Qu = 200 W m−2. Second, a moderate-mitigation scenario in which
Qr < Qu = 150 W m−2. And third, a full-mitigation scenario in which urban and rural areas exhibit the same sensible heat flux, i.e.
Qr = Qu = 100 W m−2. The resulting maximum urban-rural contrasts of these scenarios (50 and 100 W m−2) are comparable to
observations (Christen and Vogt, 2004; Offerle et al., 2006).
Two additional, more extreme cases of UHI are also included in the analysis, having Qu = 250 W m−2 and Qu = 400 W m−2 (i.e.,
contrasts of 150 and 300 W m−2). Similar contrasts have been applied in ideal numerical simulations (e.g. Wang, 2009; Zhang et al.,
2014). With these scenarios, the focus is given to cases where urban areas are warmer than adjacent rural areas (“heat islands”), and
do not consider cases where “urban cool islands” develop (e.g. Giovannini et al., 2011).

2.5. Air pollution: passive tracer

Air pollution transport is represented through a passive tracer, exclusively emitted from the urban area. The surface flux of passive
tracer is set to an arbitrary fixed rate, which is continuously emitted (every time step) in the lowermost grid-cell. The same amount of
pollutant (tracer) is released in all scenarios. Model output provides tracer mass mixing ratios (r), which are converted to normalized
mixing ratios in order to have results independent of the emission rate. Normalized tracer mixing ratios are defined as r/rmax, with
rmax being the maximum mixing ratio of all simulations.

2.6. Averaging procedure

An averaging method for calculation of turbulence statistics is performed over the y-axis, as it is the only axis with homogeneity in
the flow (topography varies only in the x-axis). The results presented below represent averaged values (Catalano and Moeng,
2010),
1 Ly
(x , z , t ) = (x , y, z , t ) dy,
Ly 0 (3)
where Ly = 7.5 km is the domain length in the along-valley direction, and ϕ the instantaneous value of a given variable.

2.7. Turbulent kinetic energy

Total TKE is computed as the sum of the resolved-scale and subgrid-scale TKE, with the sub-grid component directly obtained
from the model and the resolved-scale (TKERes) component given by
1
TKERes = ( u 2 + v 2 + w 2)
2 (4)
where the instantaneous deviations from the mean, ϕ′, are
(x , y, z , t ) = (x , y, z, t ) (x , z , t ). (5)

3. Results

3.1. Trade-off: impacts of UHI mitigation on air quality

There is a trade-off between UHI mitigation and air quality, which is evident for both stability levels. Figs. 2 and 3 show that
increased UHI mitigation generally leads to worse air quality. The worsening is especially pronounced in the early morning due to the
initial conditions of atmospheric stability. At 0800, for low stability, most of the emitted tracer remains trapped below the moun-
taintop level in the full-mitigation scenario, whereas at the same time in the less-mitigation scenarios (i.e. no- and moderate-miti-
gation scenarios) tracer masses have started to leave the valley atmosphere. Differences are even larger in the more extreme UHI
scenarios, with the tracer plume reaching a height of about 2 km for the maximum contrast (Supplementary Fig. S1). Afterwards, the
full-mitigation scenario presents overall higher tracer concentrations. These same relations between scenarios occur for high stability
(Fig. 3), but with higher tracer concentrations in the lower valley atmosphere, especially in the full-mitigation scenario during the
morning.
The worsening of air quality due to increased UHI mitigation is further clarified by Fig. 4, which shows how the tracer accu-
mulates (on average) within each of the volumes presented in Fig. 1. Throughout the daytime, air quality in the lower valley
atmosphere (i.e. volumes C1, C2, and SR1; Fig. 4a–e,g) is worse in the mitigation scenarios (full and moderate), for both stability

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Urban Climate 31 (2020) 100542

Fig. 2. Daytime evolution of normalized tracer mixing ratio from morning (top) to afternoon (bottom), with low stability (∂θ/∂z = 1 K km−1 at initial condition). UHI mitigation varies from no- (left) to
moderate- (center) and full-mitigation (right) scenarios. Isentropes are shown every 1 K. The gray hatched box indicates the location of the urban area. See Supplementary Fig. S1 for results of the other scenarios.
 J.J. Henao, et al.

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Urban Climate 31 (2020) 100542

Fig. 3. As in Fig. 2 but for high stability (∂θ/∂z = 3 K km−1 at initial condition). See supplementary Fig. S2 for results of the other scenarios.
J.J. Henao, et al. Urban Climate 31 (2020) 100542

Fig. 4. Daytime evolution of normalized tracer mixing ratio depending on the UHI mitigation scenario and initial stability: low (left and middle-left)
or high (middle-right and right). Each panel shows average values for the volumes in Fig. 1. Each line represents a UHI mitigation scenario, as
indicated by the corresponding Qu value in panel a. The results of symmetric volumes (SL1, SL2, PL1, and PL2; not shown) are not presented.

cases. In the upper valley atmosphere (i.e. volumes C3 and SR2; Fig. 4f,h,i,k), the full-mitigation scenario exhibits higher con-
centrations most of the time, except in the morning due to transport processes and stability. These processes will be revised in the
next section.
Worsening of air quality due to UHI mitigation is aggravated by increased stability. Comparisons between Figs. 2 and 3, as well as
between left and right columns of Fig. 4, show that increased atmospheric stability (initial condition) exacerbates tracer accumu-
lation, especially in the lower atmosphere. Of particular importance is that the air quality worsening, due to stability, is more
pronounced in C1, i.e. over the urban area, which is relevant from the public health perspective. For this same volume, tracer
concentrations in the full-mitigation scenario exhibit a decreasing trend in the morning, for the low initial stability (Fig. 4a). In
contrast, concentrations remain high when initial stability is high (Fig. 4c). Within the C1 volume, tracer concentrations approach a
constant minimum value during most of the afternoon in the less-mitigation scenarios. The moderate-mitigation scenario is generally
better than the full-mitigation scenario, and always produce lower maximum concentrations that occur in the morning under low or
high stability. However, an exception occurs in the afternoon under low stability (Fig. 4a). In the afternoon, while concentrations are
about the same in the full- and no-mitigation scenarios, they are higher in the moderate-mitigation scenario. This difference between
the moderate and other scenarios is related to two contrasting effects. First, as compared to the full-mitigation scenario, the UHI-
induced convergence in the moderate scenario reduces transport to the slopes (note that concentrations in SR1 are lower in the
moderate scenario during the afternoon, Fig. 4b), i.e., tracer masses tend to concentrate over the center of the valley. Second, as
compared the no-mitigation, the low-level convergence is weaker in the moderate scenario, and, therefore, less efficient to enhance

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Urban Climate 31 (2020) 100542

Fig. 5. Daytime evolution of the wind field (vectors) starting with low stability. Colors show the w wind component. See supplementary Fig. S3 for results of the other scenarios.
 J.J. Henao, et al.

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Urban Climate 31 (2020) 100542

Fig. 6. As in Fig. 5 but starting with high stability. See Supplementary Fig. S4 for results of the other scenarios.
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Urban Climate 31 (2020) 100542

Fig. 7. Daytime evolution of total TKE starting with low stability. Contours show isentropes every 1 K. See Supplementary Fig. S6 for results of the other scenarios.
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Urban Climate 31 (2020) 100542

Fig. 8. As in Fig. 7 but starting with high stability. See Supplementary Fig. S7 for results of the other scenarios.
J.J. Henao, et al. Urban Climate 31 (2020) 100542

the vertical transport of pollutants. These results further illustrate the inherent complexity of trade-offs between urban mitigation and
air quality, even in our idealized simulations.
Notably, there is a non-linear relation between the magnitude of an UHI mitigation measure (in terms of surface sensible heat flux
reductions) and its impact on air quality. For instance, a reduction from 250 W m−2 to 200 W m−2 (the QS value in Eq. (2)) results in
an air quality worsening which is less severe than the one caused by an equivalent reduction from 200 W m−2 to 150 W m−2
(Fig. 4a,c).

3.2. Air pollution transport mechanisms

UHI mitigation impacts on air quality occur through alterations in the mechanisms of air pollution transport, which depend on the
evolution of the wind (Figs. 5 and 6) and turbulence (Figs. 7 and 8) fields. These alterations are mainly related to slope flows (Section
3.2.1), the development of the CBL and transport over the valley center (Section 3.2.2), and atmospheric stability and destabilization
(Section 3.2.3).

3.2.1. Transport through the slopes

UHI mitigation alters the slope flows dynamics in several ways. At 0800, upslope flows develop in all scenarios for both low
(Fig. 5a–c) and high (Fig. 6a–c) stability. Afterwards, in the less-mitigation scenarios, these upslope flows are either partially (e.g.
Fig. 6h) or fully (Supplementary Figs. S3 and S4) reversed. The extent and intensity of this flow pattern increases with increasing
urban-rural thermal contrast, with downslope flows dominating about the lower half of the slopes in the no-mitigation scenario, the
lower part of the slope in the moderate-mitigation scenario, and none (only upslope flows) in the full-mitigation scenario (Figs. 5 and
6, and Supplementary Fig. S5).
As a result, slope flows exhibit opposite patterns (upslope versus downslope) between the full- and the less-mitigation scenarios.
The prevalence of upslope flows (during the day) in the full-mitigation scenario coincides with the expected dynamics in rural valleys
(Zardi and Whiteman, 2013). The reversal of upslope to downslope flows is a key effect of the interactions of urban heating with slope
winds (Ganbat et al., 2015a, 2015b), which could have strong implications for air quality (Rendón et al., 2014). Numerical simu-
lations around the metropolitan areas of Seoul, Korea (Ryu and Baik, 2013) and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (Ganbat and Baik, 2015) have
also reported conversion of upslope to downslope winds, due to thermal contrast between the urban areas and mountains in the
vicinity.
Low tracer accumulations during the morning in volumes SR2, PR1, and PR2 indicate a relative weaker ventilation along the
slopes (Fig. 4f,h,j,l,n,p). This occurs in all scenarios, but not for the same reasons. Reduced upslope transport in the less-mitigation
scenarios is explained by the formation of a UHI-induced circulation, with wind directions towards the valley center near the lower
slopes and the urban-rural border (Supplementary Fig. S5). In the full-mitigation scenario, upslope flows are not fully developed in
the morning, resulting in weak upslope transport. The weak upslope transport is further reduced by increased stability (e.g. compare
Figs. 5f and 6f), which coincides with higher concentrations over the valley floor (e.g. compare panels a and c of Fig. 4). Relative to
the less-mitigation scenarios, the upper slope volumes (SR2, PR1, and PR2) in the full-mitigation scenario present higher con-
centrations after the late morning, due to the persistence of upslope flows (solid line above other lines in volumes SR2, PR1, and PR2
during the afternoon; Fig. 4f,h,j,l,n,p). This is explained by a larger transport over the slopes in the full-mitigation scenario and more
through the center in the less-mitigation scenarios.
Upslope flows are an important mechanism for venting air pollutants out of a valley floor (e.g. Panday and Prinn, 2009).
Therefore, the concurrence of upslope (downslope) flows and worse (better) air quality in the full-mitigation scenario (less-mitigation
scenarios) might be a counter-intuitive result. However, the impact of slope (upslope or downslope) flows on pollutant accumulation
in a valley floor depends on how these flows are linked to the upward transport through valley center. Indeed, downslope flows can
be linked to intense low-level convergence and upward transport through a valley center, which may be an efficient mechanism for
valley ventilation. This linkage is explored in next section.

3.2.2. Transport through the valley center and cross-valley circulation

The upward transport of tracer masses through the valley center is sensitive to UHI mitigation. In general, increased UHI miti-
gation translates into weakened vertical (upward) motions (Figs. 5 and Fig. 6) and turbulence (Figs. 7 and 8) over the urban valley
floor. The resulting tracer transport depends not only on the vertical transport, but also on its coupling with the slope flows and
interactions with stability. Variations in this interplay result in different cross-valley circulation patterns. Two clear patterns develop
depending on the intensity of UHI mitigation. In the less-mitigation scenarios, a cross-valley circulation pattern predominates for
most of the day (left and middle columns of Figs. 5 and 6 after 1100), including downslope flows, low-level convergence over the
valley floor, and ascending motions through the valley center. This ascending motion is driven by intense production of turbulence
over the heated urban area (left and middle columns of Figs. 7 and 8). Previous studies have also reported strong updrafts over urban
areas associated to UHI-induced circulations and daytime downslope flows, with comparable vertical velocities (Ryu and Baik, 2013;
Ryu et al., 2013; Ganbat et al., 2015a). Hence, a fundamental impact of UHI mitigation is to weaken this circulation and the
associated vertical transport of pollutants over the urban area.
A different cross-valley circulation pattern dominates the flow field in the full-mitigation scenario (right column of Figs. 5 and 6),
including upslope flows, and a number of updrafts and downdrafts randomly distributed over the urban valley floor. This CBL
structure suggests that turbulence generated by buoyancy due to the upward heat flux from the surface dominates relative to tur-
bulence generated by mean shear (Schmidt and Schumann, 1989). During morning, the updrafts and downdrafts barely reach the

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mountaintop level and, therefore, they do not constitute a mechanism for venting pollutants out of the valley but, instead, for vertical
mixing within the valley atmosphere. This implies that pollutants emitted from the surface can recirculate within the valley atmo-
sphere.
UHI mitigation can have strong impacts on the spatial and temporal distribution of pollutants through effects on these circulation
patterns. UHI mitigation reduces vertical transport from the urban surface to the free atmosphere, i.e. from C1 to C4 passing through
C2 and C3. As a result, the concentration of pollutants in C3 and C4 (the more elevated volumes above the valley center) is lower in
the full-mitigation scenario during the early morning: solid line is below other lines in Fig. 4i,k,m,o. This, along with a weaker
upslope transport (previous section), explains the larger tracer concentrations within C1 and C2 in the full-mitigation scenario: the
solid line is mostly above the others in Fig. 4a,c,e,g.
Of particular importance from the public health perspective is that UHI mitigation reduces ventilation in C1, i.e. the region
immediately above the urban area. Tracer masses can be vented out of C1 through both upslope flows and ascending motions. In the
morning, ventilation in C1 leads to a decreasing trend in concentrations for all scenarios, but not due to the same mechanisms. In the
full-mitigation scenario, the decreasing trend results from the combined effect of upslope flows, which increase tracer concentrations
along the valley sidewalls (Fig. 4b,d), and turbulent vertical mixing which increase concentrations above C1 (Fig. 4e,g,i,k). This
increase of concentrations above C1 differs greatly depending on stability. During the early morning, tracer masses transported
vertically reach the C3 volume when initial stability is low (Fig. 4i), but not when it is high (Fig. 4k). Under high stability, higher
concentrations remain within C1 (Fig. 4c) and C2 (Fig. 4g). The presence of updrafts and downdrafts implies that tracer masses can be
continuously exchanged between these two volumes. In contrast, in the less-mitigation scenarios, the prevalence of downslope flows
implies that ventilation in C1 occurs mainly through ascending motions. These mechanisms are further clarified, for instance, by
Figs. 2 and 3 at 1100, in which tracer masses are less distributed along the slopes and more concentrated over the valley center for the
less-mitigation scenarios than for the full-mitigation scenario.

3.2.3. Atmospheric stability

Increased stability generally exacerbates the negative impacts of UHI mitigation on air quality by adding restrictions to the
ventilation mechanisms, as it reduces both ascending winds (Fig. 5 versus Fig. 6) and turbulence (Fig. 7 versus Fig. 8) For instance,
tracer concentrations over the urban area (in C1) and above the mountaintop level (in C4), respectively, reach much higher values
(panel a versus panel c of Fig. 4) and remain lower for a longer time (panel m versus panel o of Fig. 4) under high stability.
Fig. 9 shows the time-height tracer distribution horizontally averaged over the urban area. As a simple proof of concept, we
include an approximate value of the CBL height, estimated as the height at which the mean potential temperature gradient ∂θ/∂z
exceeds a threshold of 0.001 K m−1, starting at the lowest level (Catalano and Moeng (2010) and Leukauf et al. (2016) used a similar
procedure). This illustrates two important points. First, that tracer masses remain substantially concentrated below the stable layer;
and second, that UHI mitigation delays the destabilization process. For instance, the difference in the duration of the destabilization
process between the no- (Fig. 9d) and full-mitigation (Fig. 9f) scenarios is > 3 h (from ∼1000 to ∼1300). Maximum CBL height for
high (low) stability are 1.8 (3.4) km for the full-mitigation scenario, 2.0 (3.6) km for the moderate-mitigation scenario, and 2.1
(3.8) km for the no-mitigation scenario. For the larger UHI contrasts of 150 and 300 W m−2, values increase to 2.2 (4.1) km and 2.4
(4.6) km, respectively. CBL height increases with increasing thermal contrast and decreasing stability.
In the full-mitigation scenario, for the high initial stability, an abrupt change in tracer concentrations occurs around 1300 for
volumes C1 (Fig. 4c), C2 (Fig. 4g), and C4 (Fig. 4o). While concentration decreases in the lower level volumes (C1 and C2), it
increases above the mountaintop level (in C4). This transition describes the moment in which tracer masses escape the valley (i.e.
reach the C4 volume), and is concurrent with the destabilization of the valley atmosphere (Fig. 9f), which in turn is related to the CBL
growth from below the mountaintop level at 1100 (Fig. 8f) to above this level at 1400 (Fig. 8i). CBL growth is a fundamental process
of atmospheric destabilization in valleys (Whiteman and McKee, 1982). By weakening this process, UHI mitigation can worsen air
quality during temperature inversion events.

4. Discussion

This discussion is focused on the potential implications of our idealized results for management and planning of real urban
systems. Although a number of previous studies have identified both beneficial and adverse environmental impacts of UHI mitigation
(e.g. Fallmann et al., 2016; Ma et al., 2017; Morini et al., 2018; Falasca and Curci, 2018; Li et al., 2018; Epstein et al., 2017), the
challenge of building a more general understanding of the mechanisms behind these contrasting impacts remains (Taha, 2015; Yang
et al., 2015). Although idealized, our simulations reproduce key meteorological aspects of urban valleys and, more importantly, shed
light on the physical mechanisms through which UHI mitigation interacts with the transport of air pollutants in such valleys. The goal
of characterizing these mechanisms could be used to guide the design of observational studies in real systems (e.g. detection of slope
winds reversal related to urban heating). Although several studies have reported observations of UHI-induced circulations resulting in
strong low level convergence over urban areas (e.g. Hidalgo et al., 2008; Bornstein and Lin, 2000), distinguishing effects of urban
areas on observed winds is a challenging task due to interactions among multi-scale flows (e.g. Lemonsu et al., 2006; Park, 2018).
Having used a passive tracer implies that our results do not consider potential effects of UHI mitigation on air quality through
chemical reactions. For instance, UHI mitigation has been found to either decrease or increase ozone concentrations, depending on
competing mechanisms such as reductions in temperature, higher concentration of primary pollutants, and variations in the amount
of reflected solar radiation (Fallmann et al., 2016; Epstein et al., 2017; Falasca and Curci, 2018). However, the transport of a passive
tracer is representative of nonreactive (at the considered spatial and temporal scales) pollutants (e.g. particulate matter and carbon

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Fig. 9. Time-height distribution of normalized tracer mixing ratio for the UHI mitigation scenarios, and for the low (top) and high (bottom) stability levels. Values represent spatial averages over the
Urban Climate 31 (2020) 100542

valley floor. The bold line shows the approximate height of the CBL. See Supplementary Fig. S8 for results of the other scenarios.
J.J. Henao, et al. Urban Climate 31 (2020) 100542

monoxide) which may be highly relevant for estimating health effects of e.g. vehicle emissions (Marshall et al., 2005). The sig-
nificance of these considerations depends on the particularities of each city and the relevant pollutants.
The topographical settings of individual cities are relevant for pollutant transport, as the evolution of stable layers and valley
circulations are sensitive to e.g. geometrical characteristics of valleys and urban areas. The present study is limited as different valley
geometries were not analyzed. For instance, deeper valleys may exhibit stronger upslope winds (Wagner et al., 2015b) and longer
lifetimes of temperature inversions (Colette et al., 2003); valley width seems to have little impact on slope flows (Wagner et al.,
2015b), although differences between a narrow and a wide valley may arise (Serafin and Zardi, 2010); higher slope angles are
associated to larger horizontal and vertical wind speeds (Atkinson, 1995). Urban area fraction is another feature of urban valleys that
is relevant for the mechanisms of air pollution transport (Rendón et al., 2014). Low percentages of urban land may be associated with
reversed cross-valley circulations producing downslope winds, but when the urban percentage is large (i.e., if the sidewalls are
largely urbanized) the cross-valley circulation may be that of typical valleys with upslope winds (Rendón et al., 2014). However, even
for the cases with large urban fractions and typical valley circulations, a reduction of the surface forcing (UHI mitigation) would
delay the breakup of the temperature inversion and reduce the slope flows (Rendón et al., 2014; Leukauf et al., 2015), thus limiting
ventilation.
Another important simplification of our model configuration is the lack of along-valley winds or mountain-plain circulations due
to the quasi-two-dimensional topography (uniform in the along-valley direction). Although the presence of along-valley flows has
little impact on the cross-valley circulation (e.g. Rampanelli et al., 2004; Schmidli, 2013), along-valley circulations can play an
important role in ventilation as mass is transported from the boundary layer of an adjacent plain into the valley, while a return flow
(valley to plain) occurs aloft (Wagner et al., 2015b). Hence, assuming that the air transported from the plain to the valley is non-
polluted, the along-valley flow can be beneficial for air quality in the valley, due to the replacement of polluted air with clean air
through this type of along-valley circulation. Although our experiments do not allow to explore the effect of UHI mitigation on this
mechanism, it is interesting to note that its formation is associated with higher temperatures over the valley than over the plain
(Schmidli, 2013), and the up-valley flow intensifies with increasing temperature contrast (Wagner et al., 2015a). Therefore, weak-
ening of this plain-to-valley thermal contrast through UHI mitigation could weaken the along-valley ventilation. Overall, the po-
tential impacts of UHI mitigation on along-valley circulation adds complexity to the discussed trade-offs, which should be considered
in future studies.
The number of studies on urban cooling strategies has been continuously growing (Yang et al., 2015; Aleksandrowicz et al., 2017;
Francis and Jensen, 2017). Consequently, it is still a common (sometimes implicit) premise that UHI mitigation has a net beneficial
effect on urban quality and sustainability (e.g. Taha, 2015; Ma et al., 2017; Morini et al., 2018). Contrary to this premise, our results
demonstrate how UHI mitigation can cause a significant worsening of air quality in urban valleys, via the alteration of the physical
mechanisms of air pollution transport. A fundamental implication for urban management and planning in real systems is that large
and often cost-intensive (Pomerantz, 2018) urban transformations (e.g. replacement of materials) should not be accomplished under
the assumption that UHI mitigation (cooling a city) will necessarily lead to improved environmental quality. Unexpected adverse
impacts on air quality may emerge.
Our results also demonstrate the theoretical possibility of finding intermediate strategies for UHI mitigation in which urban
heating can be reduced while limiting the adverse impacts on air quality. Such strategies can lead to important benefits of UHI
mitigation (e.g. improving urban comfort) while not strongly deteriorating air quality. Finding such intermediate strategies is of
practical importance for urban management and planning, and requires case-specific simulations.
The complex interactions between UHI mitigation and air quality, as well as the potential trade-offs, imply that real cases should
be modelled with realistic models for informing decisions. Consequently, the common assumption that surface temperature reduction
is, per se, an indicator of urban environmental quality improvement (e.g. Lee et al., 2015; Li and Norford, 2016; Ma et al., 2017; Yuan
et al., 2017) may be misleading, especially in urban valleys. Finally, we want to emphasize that our intention is not to generally
discourage the implementation of UHI mitigation strategies, but rather to highlight the urgent need to apply more comprehensive and
integrated analysis for decision making. This is in the spirit of conceiving urban systems as highly complex and dynamic in nature
(Masson et al., 2018).

5. Conclusions

Our large eddy simulations show that for an idealized urban valley with fixed emissions: (i) tracer concentrations generally
increase with increasing UHI mitigation and stability, mainly as a consequence of reduced vertical transport through the center of the
valley; (ii) UHI mitigation causes a transition from a daytime flow field with prevalent downslope flows, low-level convergence, and
ascending motions over the urban valley center, to a flow field with prevalent upslope flows and turbulent mixing within the valley
atmosphere (below the mountaintop level); (iii) UHI mitigation delays the destabilization of the valley atmosphere and, therefore,
enhances the trapping effect of stable layers; and (iv) there is a non-linear relationship between the intensity of UHI mitigation
(relative reduction in surface heating) and the increase of tracer concentrations, especially over the urban area, which opens the
possibility of finding moderate mitigation scenarios in which the benefits of UHI mitigation outweigh its negative impacts on air
quality.
Although idealized, our results provide evidence that UHI mitigation can cause significant air quality worsening in real urban
valleys, and shed light on the physical mechanisms behind this impact. Typical events of increased atmospheric stability, or tem-
perature inversion, can substantially exacerbate this adverse impact in real urban valleys. Those mechanisms are fundamentally
related to the effect of urban cooling on reducing turbulence and ascending motions that may be fundamental for the ventilation of

15
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urban valleys. Collectively, our results and their implications demonstrate a relevant trade-off between UHI mitigation and air quality
in real urban valleys. This trade-off, as well as its underlying mechanisms, should be thoroughly considered before deciding about the
implementation of UHI mitigation strategies in real systems.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no conict of interest.

Acknowledgements

We thank the associate editor and two anonymous reviewers for providing constructive comments. Juan J. Henao was funded by
the Colombian Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (COLCIENCIAS) under the National Doctoral Grant
Convocatoria 727 de 2015. The numerical simulations were performed on the computing cluster of the GIGA research group
(Universidad de Antioquia), acquired with funding from Programa de investigación en la gestión de riesgo asociado con cambio climático y
ambiental en cuencas hidrográficas (UT-GRA), Convocatoria 543-2011 COLCIENCIAS.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2019.100542.

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