Talk:Urban heat island

GA Reassessment

Urban heat island

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch • Watch article reassessment page • Most recent review

Result: Fails GA criterion 3 and 4, as outlined below. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 18:27, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

It became a good article many years ago and is an important subject which could do with checking Chidgk1 (talk) 17:35, 19 March 2023 (UTC)

More citations are needed and almost all the examples section is about the US. So formally I am saying that I am not sure it now meets number 3 in the GA criteria. Chidgk1 (talk) 17:47, 19 March 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for starting this process. I also think it probably needs to be delisted and then re-assessed (or the other way around). I have also written about it here. Basically, the current article is very different to the version that was assessed in 2009. I think it would fail this criterion: "it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail". (Although perhaps the recent culling and condensing activities that I performed solved some of that problem). It's a very important topic that will get more into the news and limelight as climate change will amplify the urban heat island effect more and more (at least for those cities that currently have a pronounced urban heat island effect already). EMsmile (talk) 21:39, 19 March 2023 (UTC)

Another issue with this article is coverage. A major cause of the effect is not cities per se but the large concentrations of cars (particularly ICEs) and car infrastructure (parking lots, roads, and other paved areas). The article barely mentions this. (t · c) buidhe 17:30, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

As the closing tool does not work on Safari on my ipad (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Novem_Linguae/Scripts/GANReviewTool#Not_appearing_on_my_ipad) perhaps someone else would like to close this Chidgk1 (talk) 11:19, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Wiki Education assignment: Environmental and Climate Justice

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 24 August 2023 and 8 December 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Garrarp (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Csatterfield (talk) 19:08, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Research Process and Methodology - FA23 - Sect 201 - Thu

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 7 September 2023 and 14 December 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jasminezapple (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Jasminezapple (talk) 01:28, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Environment and Justice

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 9 January 2024 and 24 May 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Bob Reginald Ross, Gobrowns420 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Gobrowns420 (talk) 18:16, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

Proposed Organizational Changes

• Move Causes and Climate Change as Amplifier under Description
• Move Redlining under society and culture
• Consider creating Environmental Justice section
• Revise lead to shorten and clarify

Merlinderhindergrinder (talk) 16:44, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi, could you clarify why you think those proposed changes are an improvement? For example, I don't think the lead needs to be shortened. It's a good summary of the article and pretty much the right length. And I think "Causes" should remain as a main level heading. The section on redlining doesn't fit, I have removed it (see below). EMsmile (talk) 20:41, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

Removed section on redlining

I have just removed this content because I think it's overly specific to the U.S. and doesn't fit this high level article. Consider moving it to a U.S.-specific article maybe:

"Redlining: Patterns of UHIs appear to be constant in neighborhoods that were historically given poor ratings by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation in the U.S. These neighborhoods often lack the infrastructure necessary to combat the effects of UHIs.

There appears to be a correlation between historically redlined areas in the U.S. and those most vulnerable to heat exposure today. According to Professor Jeremy S. Hoffman and his colleagues, there is a strong positive relationship between historically redlined neighborhoods and the current heat indexes of those neighborhoods compared to non-redlined ones. A 2023 study published in Nature Sustainability found that implementing reflective or "cool" roofs in cities could reduce surface temperatures by up to 1.2 °C, especially in densely populated urban areas.

References

Disingenuous, unsourced photo comparison

The photo comparison of Milan and New York is manipulative. The article itself references nothing on Milan. The photos themselves show that both Milan and New York both have green areas, as well as densely built up areas, but the focus on each of these is different for the two cities. 2001:4C4E:24A9:1A00:33C7:ECFE:6F17:7749 (talk) 08:46, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

Those are just example images. Feel free to find better or additional images that show how the urban heat island effect is amplified or reduced. EMsmile (talk) 10:21, 16 August 2024 (UTC)

Possible AI generated text

Hi -- I added the AI-generated template in regard to the edits by student editor Jazminzapple, which display many signs of LLM use. Though this is a suspicion and not proof, they should be reviewed for hallucinations/copyvios, NPOV, etc. Note that there may be other AI edits elsewhere that I have not checked. Gnomingstuff (talk) 15:26, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

I don't know if its AI or not, but describing Taiwan and Southeastern China as "arid" is completely wrong! ~2025-31982-34 (talk) ~2025-31982-34 (talk) 20:50, 7 November 2025 (UTC)