An Analysis of the Urban Heat Island of Venice mainland

tIn Italy, as in the rest of Europe, serious land degradation processes are occurring, mostly due to rural aban-donment, urbanization and infrastructure development. In particular Veneto, the region around Venice,has undergone considerable land use and land cover change in the last decades. This work integrates fieldobservations and numerical simulations to study the urban heat island (UHI) effect in the mainland partof Venice. The numerical study was performed using ENVI-met, an environment and micro-climatic sim-ulation tool. Different mitigation scenarios are evaluated in a case study area. The study aims to explorethe factors that contribute to urban heat island development proposing practical, feasible and specificsolutions for mitigating their effects. The focus of the analysis is, in particular, on the use of permeablesurfaces vegetative soil or grassed parking instead of conventional asphalt or cement pavement as soilcompensation mechanisms for soil loss. The replacement of traditional roofs with cool or green ones isalso considered.