Tokyo - Megacity

As Tokyo is a massively populated city, it has quite an impact on the environment. An environmental problem in Tokyo at the moment is the urban ‘heat island’ that has formed. A heat island is when the air temperature of a city increases more than its surrounding areas or increases more than usual due to human activities. Heat islands also alter local wind patterns and cause more rain in the area. The average temperature of Tokyo has increased by 3 degrees Celsius in the past 100 years because of this heat island along with global warming.

 

This heat island has its effect on human health, causing heat stroke, sleeping disorders and heat syncope. Some studies have also looked at how severe heat stroke can lead to permanent damage to organ systems. Other studies have shown that heat can make people more aggressive, and could lead to more violent crimes. 

 

Heat islands are caused by lots of dark surfaces such as roads and buildings which absorb more solar radiation. As Tokyo is so big, it has lots of roads and buildings. Another cause of heat islands is the lack of vegetation in a megacity. If cities don’t have enough vegetation in them, they lose the cooling effect of trees and lacks the removal of carbon dioxide. A major cause of heat islands is the pollution of the air from automobiles, mainly diesel powered vehicles and nearby factories.

 

The TMG (Tokyo Metropolitan Government) have made guidelines and sent it to the residents of Tokyo to help counteract against this heat island. Some ways to help counteract against this heat island would be to lower the use of petrol consuming cars, especially diesel powered vehicles and move on to using more electric powered cars. The TMG could also just simply plant lots more trees in the area, to get the cooling effect off them and to remove carbon dioxide from the air.