Covering the streets of Valletta. Curbing UV and urban heat.

Abstract

Introduction: Urban spaces in tourist destinations face increasing challenges due to rising temperatures and heightened UV radiation, particularly during summer months. The urban heat island effect (Akbari et al., 2015) intensifies these issues, impacting human comfort and health, especially during peak summer seasons. Although trees play a vital role in enhancing urban microclimates by offering cooling benefits through shading, evapotranspiration, and acting as wind barriers (Shaamala et al., 2024), in a space-constrained city like Valletta, covering entire streets with shading structures could be an effective alternative solution to planting trees. The pressing issue of global warming has a key focal point in urban thermal comfort, which is heavily affected by the urban heat island phenomenon. Addressing this challenge requires innovative approaches to create comfortable, healthy, and sustainable microclimates. This effort involves not only urban planners and designers but also researchers and software developers, all working together to identify viable solutions, tools, and opportunities (Gal谩n-Mar铆n, C. et al., 2022).