To alleviate the heat island phenomenon, a team from Tokyo Institute of Technology has developed a system that would allow architects to estimate how much heat would be trapped by planned developments.

The team collected data on the characteristics of building and road materials that contribute to the heat island effect and examined how the phenomenon is affected by trees.

Using the software, they input data on planned buildings, the quality of materials to be used and the condition of the ground to create a 3-D model which simulates the surface temperature of all buildings and roads in a proposed development. Differences in temperature are represented by a system of color-coding.

Based on that model, the type of building materials and distribution of open land can be adjusted to reduce heat emissions.

The team plans to put the software on the market next year.

From Daily Yomiuri.