Sustainable Urban Cooling in Doha: Integrating Green, Blue, and Smart Infrastructure

Over the past 20 years Doha’s population has surged from 778,000 to 3.1 million, driving a 343% expansion in the built environment and intensifying the urban heat island (UHI) effect with temperature differences reaching up to 10°C.This rapid urban growth has pushed summer land surface temperatures up by 7°C. If this trend continues, Qatar could face a sharp rise in cooling demand, straining infrastructure, increasing energy costs, and adding to environmental pressures.

By 2050, two-thirds of the global population is expected to live in cities. The UHI-related heat stress poses serious challenges to both humans and the environment, including increased illness and mortality, reduced outdoor thermal comfort, higher cooling energy demand, poorer air quality, and greater water use. These impacts are likely to worsen owing to climate change and frequent extreme heat events.

Cities in hot arid climates are already exposed to extreme summer temperatures and intense solar radiation, which is worsened by limited vegetation and water bodies, critical for enhancing evaporative cooling. This climate type covers 14.2% of global land and is projected to expand due to climate change.

In Gulf cities, rapid economic and population growth has driven large-scale urbanization. Like its neighbors, Doha faces extremely hot summers, making air conditioning essential for all buildings. Cooling accounts for approximately 80% of Qatar’s electricity use and is projected to rise by up to 34.4% by 2080 due to climate change. The urban heat island effect, driven by low-albedo, high-thermal-mass materials and reduced vegetation, exacerbates heat stress, especially at night. Urban canyons trap heat by limiting airflow.

In response to rising urban heat, cities can adopt a range of strategies that work in synergy to reduce temperatures and improve livability. These include green infrastructure, such as parks and tree-lined streets, which incorporate vegetation to lower ambient temperatures and enhance air quality; cool materials with high reflectivity and low thermal emissivity, designed to minimize heat absorption in buildings and pavements; and urban morphology modifications for new construction, such as adjusting building heights and layouts to reduce solar exposure in densely packed urban canyons. Additionally, shading structures, such as canopies or pergolas, provide direct protection from sunlight, improving pedestrian comfort. Meanwhile, blue infrastructure like fountains or misting systems, leverages water features to promote evaporative cooling. Together, these approaches offer a multifaceted response to urban heat challenges.

Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s (HBKU)ongoing efforts to address this issue are making progress leveraging multidisciplinary research aimed at improving the built environment of metropolitan Doha. A major focus of this research concerns the mitigation of urban heat using advanced computational modeling and simulation. Recent highlights include modeling and simulating the most common urban forms found in Doha, namely compact mid-rise, compact low-rise, and open low-rise forms. The microclimate simulation outputs are validated using detailed on-site field measurements and a network of weather and air quality monitoring stations distributed throughout Doha.

Following this validation, a range of heat mitigation scenarios was developed and simulated to represent Doha neighborhoods. These scenarios were then modeled to evaluate their impact on key thermal and comfort indicators, including air temperature, radiation intensity, and outdoor thermal comfort at pedestrian height (approximately 1.4 meters). Moreover, the influence of these strategies on building cooling demand was assessed.

Simulation results reveal substantial improvements in the outdoor thermal environment when combined heat mitigation strategies are implemented, particularly those based on green infrastructure. These strategies lead to a reduction in the maximum air temperature by more than 4°C, a significant shortening of extreme heat stress periods, and a decrease in building cooling demand by over 20%. Furthermore, the strategies are shown to be effective in offsetting the projected increase in urban temperatures under high-emission climate change scenarios for the years 2050 and 2080.

Despite the promising results of simulation-based research and the proven effectiveness of integrated heat mitigation strategies, several challenges remain in translating these findings into large-scale implementations. The dense urban fabric, limited space for vegetation, high reliance on air conditioning, and the need for significant policy coordination present substantial obstacles for retrofitting existing urban areas. Collaborative efforts between urban planners, policymakers, researchers, and the public will be essential to overcome these barriers and foster resilient, thermally comfortable cities capable of withstanding the dual pressures of rapid urbanization and climate change.

The findings from HBKU’s simulations highlight the potential of integrated heat mitigation strategies to reshape Doha’s urban environment. However, transitioning from research to real-world impact requires coordinated efforts across policy, design, and community engagement. Qatar could prioritize policies that incentivize developers to integrate green infrastructure - such as green roofs, vertical gardens, and permeable pavements - into new projects, while offering support for retrofitting existing buildings. Energy subsidies could also be linked to the adoption of passive cooling measures, including cool materials and shading structures, to gradually reduce reliance on mechanical air conditioning and shave peak electricity demand. 

Establishing a cross-sector body to align urban planning with climate science and population growth projections would ensure strategies are adaptable to Doha’s diverse urban forms, from compact mid-rise districts to open low-rise neighborhoods. Public awareness campaigns could further bridge gaps by educating residents on heat risks and fostering community stewardship of urban green spaces, alongside tools to report localized thermal discomfort. While challenges like dense urban layouts and limited vegetation space still exist, these steps could lay the groundwork for cities that balance growth with thermal resilience.

Dr. Azzam Abu-Rayash is an Assistant Professor at the Division of Sustainable Development at the College of Science and Engineering (CSE), Dr Rami Alfarra is a Principal Scientist and air quality lead at Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), and Dr. Tareq Ali H A Al-Ansari is Acting Executive Director of QEERI and Associate Professor at the Division of Sustainable Development, CSE, all HBKU.

An adapted version of this article is available (in Arabic) here.