URBAN HEAT ISLAND RESEARCH IN PHOENIX, ARIZONA Theoretical Contributions and Policy Applications

A comprehensive review of the urban heat island (UHI) research occurring within the Phoenix Metropolitan Area (PMA) and frames it in the context of a potentially useful case study of applied climatology within a major American city is presented. An important organization that helped facilitate such research was the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP-LTER) project, a National Science Foundation (NSF) program that investigates the complexities of human-ecological processes within the PMA. The largest number of papers reviewed dealt with the physical study of UHI over different spatiotemporal scales. A greater volume of research also used deductive epistemologies formulated upon prior generalizations and theory, reflecting the maturity of UHI study in the PMA. Several municipal governments actively promoted urban sustainability by encouraging homeowners with extensive mesic landscaping to convert to low-water demand xeric vegetation.