Cities for Smart Environmental and Energy Futures: Urban Heat Island Mitigation Techniques for Sustainable Cities Konstantina Vasilakopoulou, Denia Kolokotsa, and Mattheos Santamouris Abstract The most apparent impact of urban development on the environment is the rearrangement of its biophysical attributes. By altering the nature of the surface and generating large amounts of heat, urbanized areas modify the microclimate and air quality. The urban heat island phenomenon, which serves as a trap for atmospheric pollutants, deteriorates the quality of life and has a socio-economic impact in the urbanised areas, has been a research subject at least for the last 100 years. Mitigation strategies have been proposed to alleviate the negative effects of the summertime urban heat. In particular these strategies take advantage of insights gained from study of the urban energy balance. Specifically, they seek to reduce the solar radiation absorbed by the surface or increase the latent heat flux away from the surface. The physical implementation of these strategies involves use of highly reflective (high albedo) roofing and paving materials, extensive planting of urban vegetation, shading etc. The aim of the present chapter is to provide the necessary knowledge concerning the recent developments in the urban heat mitigation techniques the state of the art as well as the future research prospects. K. Vasilakopoulou () • D. Kolokotsa Technical University of Crete, Environmental Engineering Department, Crete GR 73100, Greece e-mail: kvasilakopoulou@isc.tuc.gr M. Santamouris National Kapodistrian University of Athens, Physics Department, Group Building Environmental Studies, Athens, Greece S.Th. Rassia and P.M. Pardalos (eds.), Cities for Smart Environmental and Energy Futures, Energy Systems, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-37661-0 12, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 213