Urbanisation and Urban Heat Island over Kano Metropolis, Nigeria.

With the geometric growth of population figures in African countries like Nigeria, urbanisation becomes a process that cannot be halted. Urban topography, morphology of buildings, thermal features of urban materials as well as anthropogenic activities in the urban centres combine to reduce outgoing longwave radiation, thus hindering sensible heat loss and consequently generating more heat, thus causing atmospheric and surface temperatures of urban centres to be higher than that of the surrounding sub-urban centres leading to the formation of Meteorological events such as the Urban Heat Island (UHI). The UHI effect exhibit negative impacts on various aspects of human life such as health, environment, power and water supply/consistency and even economic activities. Consequently,this work has broadened the understanding of the effect of urbanisation on the occurrence of UHI phenomenon, and by extension established an in-depth assessment of the UHI impact on the livelihood of people as this is necessary in an attempt to put forward appropriate policies and monitoring strategies so as to make informed decision. It is a useful guide to Meteorologists and Environmental Managers.