Student Research Reports

View Research Report

Since we have been actively participating in the GLOBE campaign Urban Heat Island Effect by measuring the surface temperature of different surfaces at various locations for several years, we wanted to investigate the differences in surface temperatures of asphalt and grass. The long-term cooperation between the Ante Kuzmanić Medical School Zadar and the Rugvica Elementary School encouraged us to do research together. The Ante Kuzmanić Medical School in Zadar is located in coastal Croatia, and the Rugvica Elementary School in continental Croatia. We were also interested in the existence of heat islands, since Zadar is a city area, and Rugvica is a rural area (with an increasing transformation of space, which is manifested in the increasing construction of residential buildings and the expansion of the industrial zone), we were interested in whether there are differences in surface soil temperatures and air temperatures between rural and urban areas. By processing and analyzing the available data, we noticed that the amplitude of measured surface temperatures on the asphalt surface is higher in Rugvica than in Zadar, and thus confirmed our first hypothesis. The values of surface temperatures of the soil on the asphalt surface are higher in the urban area, referring to the city of Zadar, and the values of the surface temperature on the grass surface are also higher in the urban area, Zadar than in Rugvica. From the analysis of the available air temperature data, we confirmed our hypothesis that the air temperature will be higher in an urban area than in a rural area.