The Geography after-school club was pleased to welcome Nabihah to Bonus Pastor to deliver a session on Urban Heat Islands (UHI) on Wednesday 8th February 2023. This was part of the STEM Learning Programme on Climate Ambassadors where external visitors from various professions are invited into schools to share their experiences.

Nabihah Ghufoor studied Bioengineering at University. She currently works as an engineer for the company Arup as a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), working on sustainability projects relating to thermal comfort, microclimate and climate data. She has been involved in research projects around urban heat islands and has had the opportunity to travel to different counties including a recent visit to Mexico as part of her job to reduce urban heating.

Article written by Julia Da S-A, Year 8 student

“At the last Geography club we had a visitor come in and teach us about Urban Heat Islands (UHI) and different ways of making urban environment suitable for humans to thrive. One way of doing this is by implementing cool roofs which reflect light instead of absorbing it, which could cool down a building by up to 3 degrees. 

We then all worked in groups to complete an A3 sheet that required us to research the UHI in a particular country and explain what we think could help them keep cool all year round without the use of traditional air conditioning units (which use electricity that contributes to global warming).

I found the lesson very intriguing and I really enjoyed having someone that we didn't know come in and teach us because without her knowledge in that area we might not have ever learnt what a UHI is, let alone ways to help the people living in different cities around the world.”

Urban heat mitigation on a city wide level

Students looked at several different strategies that can be used to mitigate the urban heat island (UHI) effect at the city-wide level​.

Can you identify the different strategies shown in this image that can help reduce heating in an urban settlement (i.e. a city)?

Key term: Mitigation - The action to reduce the severity of something.

Students listening during the presentation and  working in groups on a research project on Urban Heat Islands (UHI).

Working in groups, students had to research their given city to find out the climate; geographical features and the city features that contribute to the UHI. They then made suggestions on how to mitigate UHI (to help to minimise urban heating in that specific city). 

Thank you to Nabihah for taking the time to come to deliver this presentation and workshop to our Geography club students. Thanks also to the 32 Year 7, 8 and 9 students who attended this session and to Miss Al-Mousili and the premises staff for helping to set up for this event.

We look forward to the next Geography club which will be a joint ‘Spirituality and Geography Club’ on Fairtrade Fortnight on Wednesday 1st March 2023 in Churchdown Dining Hall from 3.15-4.15pm.

 Ms Adade (Head of Geography)