Effectiveness of neighbourhood retrofit strategies in mitigating the urban heat island in Salcedo Village, Philippines

Salcedo Village has become more susceptible to urban heat effects because of its continuous development. This study investigates urban retrofit strategies that effectively mitigates the heat through modelling and simulation in ENVI-met. It is identified to have a maximum of 1-1.4K heat increase over 100% of its area, recorded during December 23:00 at 2m from the ground. The temperature increase is used to measure the effectiveness of the neighbourhood retrofit strategies: provision of grass, water and trees at ground level, increase in vegetated area, and Leaf Area Density of trees, and pedestrian walk albedo. The effectiveness of each strategy is quantified by its temperature difference and percentage area affected, compared with the 2014 Case model. The most effective strategy is the Leaf Area Density of trees, followed by the increase in vegetated area and the planting of trees; while all the others showed insignificant effect. The individual effects of these strategies, however are relatively small compared to the 1-1.4K heat. It was found through a combined test case that the application of these strategies together can make, but not limited to 1-1.5K change over 26% of the area