Science & Technology: Underground Heat Islands in Cities Have Enormous Geothermal Potential.

Satellites find sustainable energy in cities (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

Underground heat islands in cities have an enormous geothermal potential. Warm groundwater can be used to produce sustainable energy for heating and cooling. Researchers have now developed a new method to find underground heat islands: They estimate groundwater temperature from surface temperatures and building densities measured by satellites.

A group of scientists of the Institute of Applied Geosciences (AGW) and the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research -- Atmospheric Trace Gases and Remote Sensing Division (IMK-ASF) of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) as well as of ETH Zurich recently analyzed above-ground and underground heat islands in four big cities in Germany in relation to each other. The results are reported in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

"This method can be applied for a first assessment of underground heat islands and, hence, of ecological conditions in the groundwater and of the geothermal potential. No complex groundwater temperature measurements and interpolations are required," Philipp Blum, Professor for Engineering Geology of AGW, KIT, explains.

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