Sustainable Cities and Society 14 (2015) 280292

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Sustainable Cities and Society

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Effect of built-up ratio on the variation of air temperature in a

heritage city
Elmira Jamei a, , Yashar Jamei b , Priyadarsini Rajagopalan a ,
Dilshan Remaz Ossen c , Sasan Roushenas d
a

School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin University, 1 Gheringhap Street, Geelong 3220, Australia
School of Regional Urban Planning, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran 13145-1384, Iran
c
School of Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment, University Technology Malaysia, 81310, Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
d
Faculty of Social Science, Department of Social Planning, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran 1511315449, Iran
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 4 June 2014
Received in revised form 7 September 2014
Accepted 2 October 2014
Available online 22 October 2014
Keywords:
Air temperature variation
Heat island effect
Built-up ratio

a b s t r a c t
Urbanization in tropics has altered the microclimate of cities over the past decades. Malacca is a historical
city in Malaysia that has been under immense urban growth since 2008 when the city was listed as a world
heritage site by UNESCO. This study aimed to examine the effects of urbanization on the microclimate of
Malacca by quantifying the ratio of built-up areas in two prominent areas of the city, namely, old (heritage
site) and new city quarter (contemporary urban environment). This study focused on the variation of air
temperature. The intensity of heat island effect in the two selected areas was calculated by conducting a
comparative analysis. Mobile traverses, xed-station measurements, GIS, and satelite images were used
to monitor the variation of air temperature. Results indicated that the heritage site, which exhibited
higher ratios of built-up area, was cooler than the contemporary urban area during the day. However,
the heritage site had warmer air temperatures at night than the contemporary urban area. The built-up
ratio alone could not predict the possible consequences of planning decisions on air temperature. The
ndings of this study are expected to help urban planners to integrate local climate knowledge into urban
planning and design practices.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Malaysia is experiencing unprecedented urban growth as the
percentage of people living in urban areas has increased from 27% in
1970 to 62% in 2000 (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2000). The
rst urban heat island (UHI) study in Malaysia was conducted by
Sham in 1972 (Sani, 1972). He found that the core of the city centers
has higher air and suface temperatures than the rural surrounding
areas. This nding is also supported by numerous researchers in
Malaysia (Ahmed et al., 2014; Jamaluddin & Sham, 1987; Kubota &
Ossen, 2009).
Malacca is one of the fastest growing cities in Malaysia and
is the capital of Malacca state. Evidence of town planning in the
Malay Peninsula started in Malacca in the 15th century. During
this century, Malacca was a thriving port for international trade.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 52278391/+61 498653874.

E-mail addresses: ejamei@deakin.edu.au (E. Jamei), yashar.jamei@ut.ac.ir
(Y. Jamei), priya.rajagopalan@deakin.edu.au (P. Rajagopalan), b-dilshan@utm.my
(D.R. Ossen).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2014.10.001
2210-6707/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Early settlements were located along riverine and coastal routes.

The landscape of the city was changed in the mid-15th century
with the construction of forts by Portuguese and Dutch colonialists. Since then, the city continued to undergo a series of cityscape
alterations, and the magnitude of this alteration reached its maximum in 2008 when the city was listed as a UNESCO world heritage
site. To date, two prominent urban areas can be identied in the
city. The rst is a traditional heritage site, which is well known as
a pioneer in introducing shop houses to the world; some of these
shop houses originated in the Dutch period and seemed to have
lasted since the Portuguese rule (Worden, 2001). A shop house is
a typical two-storey building in which the ground oor is used for
business purposes and the rst oor is dedicated to housing. The
second is the contemporary urban area where ongoing rapid urban
development projects are currently taking place. Shop houses proliferated and the population density in the historic city increased
because of the inux of immigrants into Malacca in the late 18th
and early 19th centuries. New developments emerged, including
high-rise buildings and car parks, to meet the growth requirement.
Urban planning strategies dictate the city form, land use zoning, solid and void, building heights, and building footprints, and

E. Jamei et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 14 (2015) 280292

thus have a fundamental role on the microclimate of the city. The

State Authority in Malaysia is responsible for the general policy
with regard to the planning, development, and use of the land
and buildings within the area of every local authority in the state
(Ismail, 2012). Under the Enactment on Preservation and Conservation (Act 168, 1976), strict guidelines have been imposed for
the building heights in the heritage site, but the development of
new urban centers in Malacca remain unabated. Such adhoc urban
development and heat island effect threaten the survival of shop
houses as a UNESCO world heritage site and affect human thermal comfort and tourism industry because many tourist activities
depend on weather synoptic conditions. Few investigations have
been conducted on the urban climate of tropical cities compared
with temperate climates. Most UHI studies in Malaysia have been
conned to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, and UHI
studies in heritage cities, such as Malacca, are scarce. Considering
the possible physical, cultural, and economic effects of heat island
effect on the heritage site and the signicant role of heritage as an
irreplaceable source of culture, conducting a UHI study in Malacca
is necessary. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of
uncontrolled and adhoc urban growth by quantifying the built-up
ratio as an indicator for urban development on air temperature variation and heat island intensity. The distribution of air temperature
and heat island intensity was examined in relation to the builtup ratio in two dominant urban environments in Malacca, namely,
the heritage and contemporary urban areas. This study focused on
air temperature variations between day and night. Built-up ratio is
dened as the percentage of the constructed buildings to the entire
area or the area of the building footprint to the total plot area.

2. Literature review
Rapid urbanization has signicantly altered the local microclimate of cities worlwide over the past few decades. The magnitude
of this alteration is highly inuenced by urban design and future
urban development strategies (Taha, 1997). Therefore, creating
cities that are responsive to local climate and contribute to a sustainable environment is a challenging task for urban planners.
The signicant effect of urban design strategies on microclimate
has been extensively investigated in different geographical areas
of the planet (Ahmed et al., 2014; Ahmed, 2003; Bourbia & Awbi,
2004; Katzschner, 2010). The preliminary ndings of these studies highlight the fundamental role of urban planning guidelines
and urban design implications on increased urban air temperature in cities. Numerous studies have been conducted to examine
the adverse effects of dense urban development on urban ventilation (Rajagopalan, Lim, & Jamei, 2014), daylighting (Cheung &
Chung, 2005), acoustics (Kang & Zhang, 2010), and thermal comfort
(Givoni, 2009) because of migration from rural areas to cities.
A major consequence of high-density urban development on
microclimate is the so-called heat island phenomenon, which
contributes to higher air and surface temperatures in cities than in
surrounding rural areas and has roots in the positive urban thermal
balance (Santamouris, 2007). Numerous studies have been conducted to understand the characteristics, signicance, causes, and
effects of UHI and to document the intensity of the phenomenon
worldwide (Arneld, 2003; Mirzaei & Haghighat, 2012; Oke, 1982).
In many cities, the intensity of heat island effect exceeds 10 K,
depending on the urban properties and the local climatic conditions (Oke, 1973), and its temporal and regional variabilities are
observed worldwide (Giannopoulou et al., 2011). The behavior of
diurnal and nocturnal heat island effects differs through one specic hour of the day as it is inuenced by all contributing heat uxes,
including radiation, sensible, latent, anthropogenic, advection, and
storage (Mirzaei et al., 2012). Increased urban air temperature has

281

serious effects on the energy consumption of a building for cooling

purposes (Mirzaei & Haghighat, 2010), intensifying the pollutant
concentrations and reducing the thermal comfort of city inhabitants (Akbari, 2009). Factors generating UHI are speculated to be
the mutual response of more than 11 man-made and natural factors (Memon, Leung, & Liu, 2010). Che-Ani et al. (2009) summarized
the factors generating and dening the intensity of heat island into
two broad categories. The rst category is the meteorological factors, such as air temperature, wind speed and direction, level of
humidity, and cloud cover. The second category is the urban design
parameters, such as density of urban areas, percentage of built-up
ratios, aspect ratio of urban canyons, sky view factor (SVF), building
construction materials, and urban form.
Despite the signicant effects of urban design on urban climate,
several authors have indicated the lack of climatic considerations
during the planning process (Eliasson, 2000; Oke, 1984). The failure
to incorporate the results of climatic research into the urban design
literature is attributed to the lack of interdisciplinary work and
constraints to transfer this knowledge into urban planning practices (Kleerekoper, van Esch, & Salcedo, 2012). Therefore, this study
aimed to investigate the effect of rapid development on air temperature variation and to address the signicant effect of design and
planning parameters on the microclimate of the cities.
Many factors determine the intra-urban air temperature difference in relevant literature. Aspect ratio is a determining factor of
canyon geometry. It is dened as the ratio of H/W, where H is the
average height of the canyon walls and W is the canyon width.
Nighttime air temperature is directly related to the aspect ratio;
high H/W indicates high nighttime air temperature (Oke, Johnson,
Steyn, & Watson, 1991). The temperature pattern is reversed during
daytime. Several experimental studies support this fact. In hothumid summer days of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Ahmed, 2003) found
that maximum temperature decreases with increasing H/W ratio.
In a similar study on hot-humid climate of Colombo, Sri Lanka,
(Emmanuel & Johansson, 2006) found 7 K temperature difference
between the sites with different aspect ratios. Less radiative losses
and less penetration of the undisturbed wind usually occur in deep
canyons (Nichol & Wong, 2005; Nunez, 1974), causing a high nighttime air temperature.
Sky view factor (SVF is the other important parameter to characterize the geometry, density, and thermal balance of urban areas.
It is also a signicant element in generating and controlling the
heat island effect (Oke et al., 1991; Unger, 1996). This parameter
is a dimensionless number between zero and unity. SVF at any
point in urban areas is less than unity because of the obstacles
in the urban sky vault. Studies carried out on the effect of SVF on
the thermal condition of urban canyons have shown that cooler
daytime air temperature (cool island) (Erell & Williamson, 2007;
Hart & Sailor, 2009) and higher nighttime air temperature (heat
island) (Johnson, 1985; Svensson, 2004; Unger, 2004) are usually
correlated with lower SVFs because less incoming solar radiation
would penetrate into urban canyons with low SVF during daytime.
During the night, low SVFs limit the long-wave radiation loss and
turbulent heat transfer and thus lead to high nighttime air temperature. Outgoing long-wave radiation is trapped in urban canyons
and decelerates the cooling rate of urban surface because of the
low SVF values (Givoni, 1998). A study in Beijing, China shows
that a direct relationship exists between daytime air temperature
and SVF in urban areas; this relationship indicates that daytime
air temperature increases by increasing SVF, whereas the nighttime temperature regime is reversed (Yan et al., 2014). The authors
concluded that the effect of SVF on thermal condition is context
dependent.
Built-up ratio also inuences the intra-urban air temperature
difference. The built-up characteristics of the city play a signicant role in UHI development (Chang & Goh, 1999; Eliasson, 1996;

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E. Jamei et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 14 (2015) 280292

Park, 1986; Vez, Rodrguez, & Jimnez, 2000). Rapid alteration in

air temperature generated by the urban landscape (built/unbuilt)
inuences the comfort and health of city inhabitants and affects
energy consumption and air quality. Thus, understanding the
causes of air temperature variation in different areas with different
built-up ratios both during extreme condition and normal average
day is essential for urban planning. In UHI investigation, information on the spatial distribution of the built-up areas is vital; it
determines the spatial development of air temperature across the
different parts of the city (Bottyan & Unger, 2003; Unger, Bottyan,
Smeghy, & Gulyas, 2000). In some studies, built-up ratio has been
explained as the amount of articial surface cover. These studies
applied SPOT XS TM imagery to investigate the land-use parameter
in all cells in the study area (Mucsi, 1996; Unger, Smeghy, Gulys,
Bottyn, & Mucsi, 2001). Other studies used LANDSAT TM imagery
and developed a geographical information system database based
on vector.
Several observational and simulation techniques are used in
investigating UHI effect. Modeling all the physical factors to
develop UHI is difcult because of the complexity of urban details,
variety of building construction materials, considerable level of
articial heat production via anthropogenic heat, theoretical weakness, and high cost of computation. Despite these difculties,
several models were developed to study small-scale climatic variations within the urban areas. These models are based on energy
balance (Myrup, McGinn, & Flocchini, 1993; Oke et al., 1991;
Rufeux, 1995; Tapper, Tyson, Owens, & Hastie, 1981), radiation
(Voogt & Oke, 1991), heat storage (Grimmond, Cleugh, & Oke,
1991), water balance (Grimmond & Oke, 1991), and surface sensible heat ux (Voogt & Grimmond, 2000) approaches. Statistical
models also provide extensive quantitative information on spatial
features of UHI intensity by using different urban surface parameters (Matzarakis, Beckrge, & Mayer, 1998; Outcalt, 1972). (Mirzaei
& Haghighat, 2010)) categorized the simulation approaches into
energy balance model, computational uid dynamics, and mesoand micro-scale models. They concluded that modeling approach
has certain limitations in providing high resolution, continuous,
and real-time boundary conditions.
Some investigations used eld measurement data to validate
their mathematical models or boundary condition settings in simulation schemes (Tominaga et al., 2008). Oke and Nunez measured
radiation uxes, wind speed, and temperature, which were then
used in the urban canopy model. Field measurement approach,
which is based on the comparison of the near-surface temperature pattern between urban and rural areas (Arneld, 2003), was
rst studied by Howard in 1818 in London. Since then, measurement devices were developed, and the possibility of investigating
on different parameters on the formation and development of UHI
was provided. Despite the wide application of eld measurement
in UHI studies, this method has several shortcomings. For instance,
installation of measurement devices around the city is neither
economical nor temporally viable. Moreover, a limited number of
stationary or mobile traverses can be used, which in turn will lead
to a reduced number of simultaneous measured parameters. Additionaly, including all the 3D spatial distributions of the elements
in urban canyons is not possible by using a eld measurement
approach; therefore, approximations are usually used to estimate these elements for inaccessible points (Mirzaei & Haghighat,
2010).

3. Methodology
Malacca city is the capital of Malacca state and is located in the
south-west part of Peninsula Malaysia (2.29 C N 102.30 E). The city
lies approximately 147 km from Kuala Lumpur, facing the Straits of

Malacca on the west. Fig. 1 illustrates the location of Malacca state

in Peninsular Malaysia.
Malacca is the third smallest state in Peninsular Malaysia but has
the second highest population density. In 1975, only one quarter of
the state population (457, 300) lived in urban areas, but more than
821,110 people live in urban areas nowadays (El-Shakhs, 1972). The
central city, which consists of two different urban environments
(heritage and contemporary urban areas), is the center of all major
activities within the region.
Malacca has hot and humid climate. It has a uniform air temperature during the year with an average maximum of 27.5 C,
average minimum of 25 C, and average humidity of 62.6%. Sunrise
in Malacca starts at about 7:00 am and sunset at 7:00 pm, receiving approximately 12 h of sunshine throughout the year. Cloud
cover blocks a substantial amount of sunshine and thus solar radiation because of intermediate sky conditions. On average, Malacca
receives approximately 6 h of sunshine and 4.39 kW h/m2 of solar
radiations per day. Winds are generally light and variable with
speeds averaging around 0 m/s to 7.5 m/s. Malaysia has two dominant seasons. The rst season is the southwest monsoon, which is
usually established in the later half of May or early June and ends in
September. The prevailing wind ow is generally southwest with
3 m/s to 7 m/s speed. The second season is the northeast monsoon,
which usually commences in early November and ends in March.
During this season, northeasterly winds with 7 m/s to 10 m/s speed
prevail. Given that thermal discomfort and heat waves accentuate with low wind speeds, this study was conducted in July 2011
to consider the lowest values of wind speeds, which result in the
worst case thermal scenario in the tropics.
The heritage site and contemporary urban area were selected
as the study areas to understand the effect of built-up ratio on
air temperature distribution and heat island intensity in Malacca
town. Morphological studies in the heritage site indicate that old
shop houses are integral parts of the built environment in Malaccas
urban design. Shop houses are usually 6 m to 7 m wide and 30 m
deep. Plans of the old shop houses are basically divided into several segments including a courtyard. The number of courtyards is
related to the length of the shop houses, whereby as the length is
longer, more courtyards are available.
The area chosen for this case study is partly located in the
heritage site and partly in the contemporary urban area. Fig. 2 illustrates the boundary of the conservation area, which has been listed
as a UNESCO world heritage site and dened by the Historic Malacca
City Council as the core zone. This area includes part of the settlement quarters, commercial area, and civic zone. The heritage core
zone is compact in form. The height of shop houses is less than
two to three storeys, and street spaces are partially shaded during
the day. Clay tile and laterite are mainly the construction materials used in the shop houses for the roofs and walls, respectively.
Pavements are mainly built using asphalt, concrete, and tile. Only
few spaces are dedicated to natural landscapes and greenery. Fig. 3
shows a typical urban environment in the heritage site.
The other part of the study area is located in contemporary
urban environment, which is the new developed urban area. The
development of Malacca has been toward the southern part, where
buildings, streets, and squares have been built according to the
planning regulations of Portugal. Fig. 4 shows that the newly constructed urban area is somehow different from the townscape of
traditional shop houses in the heritage site. This part of the city,
which is dispersed in form, is located in the southern part of the
heritage core zone. In contrast to the homogeneous shop houses
in the heritage core zone, the contemporary urban environment is
composed of buildings with various heights and constructed with
diverse materials.
Air temperature and relative humidity were monitored through
xed station and mobile traverse measurements on 10 July 2011.

E. Jamei et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 14 (2015) 280292

283

Fig. 1. Location of Malacca state in Malaysia.

TR-72U HOBBO data loggers were used to record air temperature

and relative humidity at 2 m above the ground in 10 different locations. One station was installed in a rural reference point, four
stations were located in the heritage site, and ve stations were
xed in the contemporary urban area. Fig. 5 shows the location of
the rural area with regard to the central city (heritage site and contemporary urban area). The rural reference xed station is located
within 20 km from the heritage site. The data logger in the rural
reference point was placed on the exterior of a museum (Fig. 6).
The xed stations in the city area were located in 10 sites 600 m
apart from each other, starting in the heritage site and ending in

the contemporary urban area. The xed stations were located at the
center of the distance that the vehicle moves in 1 min during the
mobile traverse. Fig. 7 depicts the route for mobile traverse, locations of xed stations, and the spatial distribution of land use in the
study area. Mobile traverses were conducted three times during
the day and three times during the night. Table 1 lists the starting
time and duration of each traverse during day and night. A vehicle
equipped with cylindrical observation tubes was used to conduct
the mobile survey. The observation tube was 30 cm in length and
7.5 cm in diameter. The data logger used for the mobile traverse was
protected against the sun and precipitation with a cylindrical PVC

Fig. 2. Core and buffer zones in the historic city of Malacca.

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E. Jamei et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 14 (2015) 280292

Fig. 3. Typical urban environment in the heritage site.

Fig. 4. Typical urban environment in the contemporary urban area.

tube. Data logger was installed on the upper section of PVC tube and
there was a slight gap between the tube and the vehicle, to avoid
the thermal effect of the vehicle on the recorded air temperature by
the data logger. Additionally, inside the PVC tube was covered with
an insulator material which means that, the surface temperature of
the car, did not have any effect on the recorded air temperature and

the device was only measurd the air temperature. Fig. 8 depicts the
data logger installed on the roof of a vehicle. The Hobo data logger,
which automatically records ambient temperature and humidity,
was xed at the center of the tube and measured the air temperature and humidity at 1 min interval. The openings of the tube were
not facing the moving direction to avoid the strong wind that may

Fig. 5. Locations of rural, with regard to the central city (heritage site and contemporary urban area).

E. Jamei et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 14 (2015) 280292

Fig. 6. Hobo data logger installed on the exterior of a museum in the rural area.

Fig. 7. Land use map

Fixed station

Mobile traverse route.

Fig. 8. Hobo data logger in a cylindrical insulated PVC tube on the roof of a vehicle.

285

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E. Jamei et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 14 (2015) 280292

Table 1
Duration of day time and nighttime mobile traverse on 10 July 2011.
Time

Traverse no

Duration of traverse

Day time traverses

Traverse 1
Traverse 2
Traverse 3
Traverse 4
Traverse 5
Traverse 6

8:00 am8:10 am
11:30 am11:40 am
15:00 pm15:10 pm
20:20 pm20.30 pm
00:20 am00.30 am
3:00 am3:10 am

Nighttime traverses

interfere with the readings during the traverse period. The vehicle
was driven along the heritage site and contemporary urban area at
a speed of approximately 40 km/h.
The path for the mobile traverse were divided into nine sections
to understand the relationship between built-up ratio and air temperature variation. The nine sections were (a), (b), (c), and (d), which
were situated in the heritage site, and (e), (f), (j), (h), and (i), which
were located in the contemporary urban area. Table 2 shows different sections in the path for mobile traverse. The table aslo indicates
the location of xed stations on the route and lists the detailed characteristics of the surrounding area of each xed station, as well as
H/W ratio at each xed station. Aspect ratio was calculated at each
xed station for heritage and contemporary urban areas. The H/W
ratio in the heritage area varied from 1 to 1.5, whereas the H/W
ratio in the contemporary urban area varied from 0.7 to 0.9.
In this study, built-up ratio refers to the percentage of the constructed building to the entire area or the area of the building

footprint to the total plot area. The route of mobile traverse was
divided into 25 m 25 m cells, and the percentage of built-up area
was calculated for each cell. The preferred size for the grids was
25 m because this size was the closest value to the maximum building within the entire study area. Few studies used this method to
understand the relationship between the built-up areas and spatial development of the mean maximum UHI effect and diurnal air
temperature (Bottyn, Kircsi, Szegedi, & Unger, 2005; Svensson &
Eliasson, 2002).
GIS software, Google Earth images, and digital maps were used
to calculate the built-up ratio. After calculating the percentage of
the buildings in each cell, the cells were categorized into 025%,
2550%, 5075%, and 75100%. Fig. 9 illustrates four different cell
types in (a) reference rural area, (b) different sections in heritage
site, and (c) different sections in contemporary urban area. the
percentage of built-up ratio in different sections are presented
in Table 2. The overall given percentage was from 100, and the
remaining percentage in each section referred to the vacant land
with soil, as well as vegetation. Each cell type was counted for each
section to identify the percentage of built-up area in each section.

4. Results and discussions

The rst part of this section presents the ndings on the effect
of built-up ratio on daytime and nighttime temperature variations.
The second part investigates the intensity of heat island effect in
relation to the built-up ratio in each section of the heritage and

Fig. 9. Study area was divided into 25 m 25 m grid networks in (a) rural, (b) heritage, and (c) contemporary urban areas (scale: 1/10 mm).

E. Jamei et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 14 (2015) 280292

Table 2
Characteristics of different sections in mobile traverse and details of xed stations.

287

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E. Jamei et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 14 (2015) 280292

Fig. 10. Daytime air temperature distribution in the heritage site and contemporary urban center.

contemporary urban areas. The intensity of heat island effect was

calculated by comparing the air temperature difference between
the urban area (heritage and new city center) and a selected rural
reference point located at the museum, which is situated within
20 km away from the city center.
4.1. Daytime and nighttime air temperature distribution in
relation to the built-up ratio
Fig. 10 depicts the spatial distribution of daytime air temperature that has been monitored from the mobile and xed
measurements at the rural reference point, heritage site, and contemporary urban area. The distribution of air temperature is shown
with regard to the percentage of built-up area in each section of the
study area.
The spatial distribution of built-up ratio in the study areas and
the percentage of built-up ratio in each section indicated that the
heritage site had a higher percentage of built-up areas. Therefore,
the heritage site was considered a denser urban environment than
the contemporary urban environment. Table 3 shows that the number of black (75100% built) and blue (5075% built) color cells was
higher in the heritage site than in the contemporary urban area.
This result indicates that the vehicle passed through the most dense
section during the rst minute of the mobile traverse as almost 52
cells in section (a) were in black color, showing that 96% of the total
area was occupied by buildings. However, the minimum value of

the built-up ratio was observed in section (f), which was located in
the contemporary urban area, as 63 cells were in green color, showing that only 20% of this section has been built. Table 3 also shows
the lowest percentages of built-up area in the sections situated in
the contemporary urban areas [(e), (f), (j), (h), and (i)] with more
cells in green (025% built) and less cells in black (75100% built)
and blue (5075% built). Field measurements in the study areas also
revealed that the recorded aspect ratio (H/W) in the heritage site
was higher than that in the contemporary urban area.
The daytime and nighttime air temperatures were monitored
across different sections of the mobile traverse to understand the
relationship between air temperature variation in relation to the
built-up percentage in each section. Monitoring started in the heritage site and ended in the contemporary urban area. Figs. 10 and 11
show the variation of air temperature measured both by xed and
mobile traverses during daytime and nighttime, respectively.
Figs. 10 and 11 demonstrate the temperature regime in the city
area. The city area had lower cooling rate than the surrounding
rural area (heritage and contemporary urban areas), but slightly
different than that in the suburb rural area. During daytime, the
rural reference point showed higher values of air temperature, with
a maximum of 38.9 C at 3:00 pm traverse, whereas urban areas
were warmer than the rural reference point at nighttime. Daytime
air temperature was high in the rural area because of the vast open
area around the xed station. By contrast, the shade from the buildings in the heritage and contemporary urban areas resulted in low

Table 3
Number of black, pink, green, and blue cells in each section in the route.
Study area

Section

025%

2550%

5075%

75100%

Heritage site

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(g)
(h)
(i)

0
20
7
46
53
63
46
22
28
60

2
18
10
21
15
9
19
14
23
0

19
18
23
11
18
0
11
20
13
0

52
7
29
6
12
1
8
4
1
0

Overall

Percentage of built up area (%)

Contemporary urban area

Rural area

96
45
75
43
41
20
41
39
38
15

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289

Fig. 11. Nighttime air temperature distribution in heritage site and contemporary urban center.

daytime air temperature. The ndings of these graphs on

urbanrural temperature difference supported the results of previous studies (Giannopoulou et al., 2011). For instance, in a similar
climatic condition of a newly planned city in Putrajaya, Malaysia,
the daytime air temperature was lower than that in the rural area
because of the shade from the buildings, while rural area was completely exposed to the sun. At nighttime, the absorbed heat in urban
surfaces will be gradually released to the atmosphere and causes a
heat island effect.
In addition to the effect of H/W ratio in providing shade in urban
areas, the effect of high built-up ratio in cities was another parameter to explain the warm nights in cities. Low built-up ratios in the
rural areas were associated with high daytime and low nighttime
air temperatures. Table 3 shows that only 15% of the selected rural
area had buildings. By contrast, more than 30% of the total sections
in the city (heritage and contemporary urban areas) were occupied
by buildings. The percentage of built-up areas in the heritage (96,
45, 75, 43) and contemporary urban areas (41, 20, 41, 39, 38) was
signicantly higher than that in the rural area (Table 3).
In regards to the cooling rate, Fig. 11 shows that after midnight, the cooling rates in the rural locations were slightly lower
than those in the city. The lowest air temperature in the rural area
was recorded at 3:00 am traverse at 24.7 C. The graphs indicate
that rural areas cooled rapidly around sunset, and the cooling rate
decreased the rest of the night. This nding supports those of several studies conducted on the difference in cooling rate between
urban and rural areas (Chow & Roth, 2006; Erell & Williamson,
2007).
The minimum values of daytime air temperature were recorded
at 8 am traverse, whereas traverses conducted at 12:00 noon and
3:00 pm signicantly monitored higher air temperatures compared
with the morning traverse. Regarding the relationship between
built-up ratio and air temperature variation, section (a) with the
highest percentage of built-up area (96%) showed the highest air
temperature (37.4 C) at 3:00 pm traverse, whereas the lowest daytime air temperature (28.4 C) in the same section was monitored
at 8:00 am. During 8:00 am and 12:00 noon traverses, air temperature increased from 28.4 C to 29.7 C and from 36.3 C to 37.4 C,
respectively, by moving from higher built-up ratios to lower builtup ratios. However, at 3:00 pm traverse, which is close to sunset, the
air temperature decreased from 37.5 C to 35.9 C from high builtup ratio to low built-up ratio. According to Fig. 10 and Table 3, the
heritage site had high percentage of built-up ratio, and contemporary urban environment indicated low percentage of the built-up

area. The rst 4 min of the traverses occured in the heritage site
and the rest occurred in contemporary urban area. In regards to the
air temperature, the heritage site was cooler than the contemporary urban area during most hours of the day because of the shade
from the buildings caused by high aspect ratios in the heritage site.
Table 2 shows that the aspect ratios in sections (a), (b), (c), and
(d) were 1, 1.2, 1.5, and 1.3, respectively, which were less than the
aspect ratios found in sections (e), (f), (g), (h), and (i) with aspect
ratios of 0.7, 0.9, 0.8, 0.7, and 0.9. High built-up ratios in the heritage
site were associated with warmer nights.
Figs. 10 and 11 show a clear relationship between the builtup ratio in each section and the related daytime air temperature.
By increasing the percentage of built-up area in each section, the
daytime air temperature tended to decrease. The only exception
occurred in the afternoon traverse, when the maximum air temperature in the heritage site was 1.6 C warmer than the minimum
air temperature in the contemporary urban area. This result is
attributed to the trapped heat in the deep canyons of the heritage site during the day, resulting in more shades. For nighttime
traverses, a direct relationship existed between the percentage of
built-up areas and air temperature, implying that dense built-up
areas indicated warmer air temperature. Fig. 10 shows section (a)
with 96% built-up ratio, indicating the highest nighttime air temperatures were recorded at 20:00 pm (30.5 C), midnight (28.9 C),
and 3:00 am traverses (26.9 C). Section (c) with 75% built-up area
was the second warmest section during nighttime. The lowest
nighttime air temperature was recorded in section (f) with 20%
built-up area in the contemporary urban area. Therefore, the heritage site (sections with higher built-up ratios) had warmer nights
than the contemporary urban area (sections with lower built-up
ratios). Figs. 10 and 11 also show that the highest values of nighttime air temperatures were recorded at 7:00 pm traverse with an
average temperature of 30 C. Midnight traverse with an average
temperature of 28.4 C and 3:00 am traverse with an average temperature of 26.2 C indicated low values of air temperatures.
4.2. Intensity of daytime and nighttime heat island effect in
relation to built-up ratio
The intensity of UHI is explained as the difference in the air temperature between the urban and rural areas and commonly used to
evaluate the effect of city growth on the local microclimate (Oke,
1981). As discussed in the methodology, a rural reference point was
located in the suburb of Malacca to quantify the air temperature

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E. Jamei et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 14 (2015) 280292

Fig. 12. Daytime UHI of heritage and contemporary urban areas with regard to built-up ratio.

Fig. 13. Nighttime UHI of heritage and contemporary urban areas with regard to built-up ratio.

difference between the rural/heritage site and rural/contemporary

urban area. The intensity of daytime and nighttime heat island
effect was calculated and illustrated in Figs. 12 and 13.
The existence of UHI in Malacca town was conrmed after conducting an extensive analysis on the recorded air temperature
obtained from xed stations and mobile traverses. Figs. 12 and 13
reveal that the values of UHI for daytime and nighttime measurements were negative and positive, respectively. This result
indicates that the rural area was warmer during the day than
the urban environment (both in heritage and contemporary urban
areas). For daytime traverses, a maximum air temperature difference of 1.4 C was detected in section (a) in the heritage site with
96% built-up area. The minimum air temperature difference was
found in section (h) in the contemporary urban area with 39% builtup area. Daytime UHI regime in the study area showed that areas
with high percentage of built-up area tended to have low air temperature values. In heritage site, this was found to bethe result of
high built-up ratios, as well as other urban design characteristics,
such as H/W ratio, local climatic condition of the study area, and
effects of the site characteristics.
Figs. 12 and 13 show that the heat island effect was more intense
during nighttime in both study areas. The maximum nighttime heat
island effect intensity was recorded in section (a) in the heritage
site, by 2.6 C with 96% built-up area C. The lowest nighttime UHI
was monitored in section (f) with the lowest percentage of builtup area. The graph also demonstrated that the recorded values of
air temperature were lowest at 3:00 am traverse with an average

UHI of 1.5 C. The intensity of heat island effect reached its maximum at 20:00 pm traverse with an average temperature of 2.1 C.
A direct relationship between the built-up ratio in each section and
the nighttime heat island effect intensity was also found. Fig. 13
illustrates that the high values of built-up ratios were associated
with high nighttime heat island effect intensity.
5. Conclusion
This paper reports the results of an empirical study on air temperature variation and heat island intensity pattern in two different
urban environments in Malacca, namely, heritage and contemporary urban areas. Measurements of day time and nighttime air
temperatures were obtained by xed station and mobile traverses
in July 2011. The relationship between temperature variation and
built-up areas was investigated.
The heritage site with high percentage of built-up ratio showed
low daytime temperature, whereas the contemporary urban area
with low percentage of built-up area has cool nights. Lower daytime
and higher nighttime air temperatures recorded in the heritage site
compared with contemporary urban area exhibited a clear relationship with the percentage of built-up area and aspect ratios.
The deep canyon in the heritage site helped cool down the daytime air temperature by providing more shades. This study was
limited to the effect of built-up ratio as a representative of urban
development on air temperature variation throughout the city. The
intra-urban air temperature difference may not be the sole effect

E. Jamei et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 14 (2015) 280292

of built-up ratio alone because other parameters inuence air temperature variation in urban canyons, such as vegetation coverage
and albedo of the surfaces. In addition, the air temperature at any
given point was strongly affected by the local climatic conditions
and its immediate surrounding environment.
This study conrmed the existence of heat island effect intensity in Malacca by quantifying the temperature difference between
a rural reference and urban areas. Therefore, this paper highlighted
the necessity of appropriate level of environmental consideration
in future urban planning strategies and city developments, which
in turn will greatly inuence the physical and cultural values of
the UNESCO world heritage site. Warmer air temperature will
adversely affect the social life of different communities who live
or work in traditional urban sites by changing the way people live,
work, worship, and socialize.
Finally, the relationship between heat island effect intensity and
built-up ratio in selected areas enhances the need to further apply
urban climate knowledge in planning and design practices. This
nding is more important in the context of heritage sites, in which
increased urban air temperature may result in uncomfortable thermal condition, less number of visitors, and irreplacable negative
effecs on the economic circumstances of the city.
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