Brick City Oven: Newark's Urbanization & Climate Change
Shania Sarango
I’ve grown up in Newark, NJ my whole life, and over the years, I’ve seen how much the city has changed. Newark has always been tightly packed with homes, businesses, and factories, but recently, rapid and increased urbanization has started reshaping entire neighborhoods in the city. In Ironbound's 55 Union Street, there’s a brand new luxurious apartment building 12 stories high. On Ferry and Market Street, there’s ongoing construction of two 26-story buildings, where Iberia used to be. Just past the Ironbound, you can find the Gateway Office Towers, which are connected to Newark Penn Station. These upscale apartment and commercial buildings have replaced empty lots, old homes, and warehouses. However, as Newark becomes more developed, climate change and its impacts become increasingly harder to ignore.
With new apartment buildings and business complexes, the amount of greenery in the city diminishes. In the Ironbound, where I’m from, there are four to six trees per block, on average. This shortage of green space means that there’s minimal natural cooling, especially during the hot summer months. Instead, Newark’s concrete and brick, especially from newer infrastructure, absorb and retain heat, increasing temperatures throughout the city and creating the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, where urban areas such as Newark experience an increase in ambient air temperatures primarily due to the replacement of green spaces with heat-absorbing infrastructure.
According to the article “Urban Heat Hot Spots in 65 Cities” by Climate Central, researchers analyzed the UHI effect by calculating the UHI index for every census block within 65 different cities in the United States. This index estimates how much urban man-made environments increase temperatures. In Newark, the UHI index is approximately 9.0ºF, meaning that if I were to walk around the Ironbound in July and the weather app read 90ºF, it would feel as though it were at least 99ºF outside. Researchers in the study also determined the three biggest factors that influence the UHI index: albedo, percentage of green space, and population density, specifically human activities.
Albedo is a measure of how much sunlight a surface reflects, meaning that surfaces with high albedo reflect most sunlight and surfaces with low albedo absorb sunlight. Surfaces made of brick and concrete, such as those in new infrastructure, absorb sunlight and become warmer. This heat then radiates into the city, increasing the overall temperature and contributing to the UHI effect. A study titled “Albedo changes caused by future urbanization contribute to global warming” by Zutao Ouyang and fellow researchers, found that the continuous reduction of albedo from 2001 to 2018 has created a warming effect that will intensify as urban cities, such as Newark, continue to develop and expand.
Green spaces in urban areas are beneficial to lowering the UHI index and ambient air temperature because they provide shade and cooling through evapotranspiration, a process where vegetation absorbs water through their roots and evaporates it through their leaves. According to the article “Benefits of Trees and Vegetation” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a review of 308 studies found that urban forests were approximately 3.0ºF cooler than urban non-green areas. This is not the case for Newark, which ranked last among 97 major U.S. cities for green space in a 2023 study by Lawn Love, a landscape company. Newark received low marks for total park acreage and average yard square footage, despite being New Jersey’s largest city. This lack of adequate green space minimizes cooling effects and increases the city’s UHI index, pushing it to rely on energy-intensive cooling methods.
All of Newark’s newer infrastructure has central air conditioning, but this method of cooling increases emissions of greenhouse gasses and adds heat to the outside environment, contributing to the UHI effect and climate change. In the article “Does Newark Have Heat Risk” by Severe Heat Factor, the use of air conditioning in Newark will lead to increased energy consumption on 154 days per year, and is expected to rise to 167 days per year over the next 30 years. This in turn releases more heat onto the environment, making Newark experience more severe UHI effects.
The rapid urban development of Newark certainly reshapes the community in a positive light, but it also heightens the challenges caused by climate change. The rising temperatures and diminished green spaces due to the gentrification and increased urbanization of Newark affects the overall sustainability of the environment. Advocating for policies that prioritize green infrastructure rather than investing in luxurious apartment buildings can decrease the UHI effect and turn Newark into a more sustainable area that could mitigate climate change, while still thriving as a bustling urban center.
Resources:
https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/urban-heat-islands-2024
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31558-z
https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/benefits-trees-and-vegetation
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