Urban climate is strongly influenced by the processes of urban work and life. Expansion of cities and consequently increased human constructions causes to changes in urban climate. The rising temperature of cities rather than the surroundings is one of the effects linked to direct human intervention.

Building heating, air pollution and the use of inappropriate materials in the flooring streets (like asphalt streets due to dark colors in energy-absorption) are effective in phenomenon of urban heat islands that makes unfavorable environment for citizens. Paying attention to the urban surfaces like sidewalk, streets and rooftops has a great role in decreasing effect of this phenomenon. Due to growing urbanization and subsequently cities development, urban heat islands have taken a growing trend in big cities.

In general, the urban heat-island is a result of urbanity features, air pollution, human warmth, presence of impervious surfaces in the city, thermal properties of materials and geometry of urban areas. Heat island phenomenon is a result of many factors that are summarized below: (1) urban Geometry (morphometry) (2) thermal properties of materials which increase the sensible heat storage in the urban texture (3) released human heat as a result of fuel combustion and animal metabolism (4) urban greenhouse gases, leading to an increase in long wave radiation, atmospheric contamination and therefore warmer atmosphere (5) reduction of evaporation levels in cities, which means that energy will be released more as tangible rather than latent heat (6) reduction of turbulence and heat transfer through the streets.

This study aimed to simulate and calculate the maximum amount of heat island (UHI max) according to the conditions of urban geometry in the region of Kucheh bagh in Tabriz that is a pioneer study in Iran.

The study area is located in Kuche bagh region at the intersection of the streets of Ghods and Farvardin in the city of Tabriz.

The Oke’s numerical-theoretical equation was used for this study. First, the geometry of the target area using the radius of 15 meters from the axis of the road was divided into separate blocks. The ratio of street width (W) and height of buildings (H) was calculated in GIS software and at the end, the intensity of UHImax was calculated and simulated using Oke equation.

The urban geometry including building height and street width is calculated using Equation 1.

The theoretical- numerical basis of this equation shows that simulation of H/W ratio is an appropriate ways to describe urban geometry. Increasing the value of this ratio could lead to an increase in urban heat-island through modeling. This model has many advantages compared to other methods used to estimate the urban heat island. So, the selected parameter to calculate urban geometry and the model used to estimate the maximum intensity of heat island is the ratio of H / W and OKE model, respectively. In addition, the average height of buildings located within a radius of 15 meters and an average width of passages were calculated from the equation 2 and 3, respectively.

After calculating the geometry of the study area, the results showed that the blocks E, G and D in terms of height of the buildings have a heterogeneous distribution, but the distribution of blocks C, I and J is illustrative of their standard configuration. Although the blocks E, F and J in terms of street width are less diverse compared to other blocks, but in terms of height of buildings (8.6, 7 and 5 meters) have a different pattern that maximum values of their UHI are 8.3, 7.5 and 6.3 degrees, respectively. Three blocks B, H and I, in addition to their similarity according to street width and height of the buildings, in terms of the ratio of H / W and heat island intensity with the values of 9.6, 9.8 and 10.2 degrees are homogeneous.

It was also found that the greatest difference between the H / W ratio is related to block A (0.54) and block H (1.98); this difference has caused that greatest difference between the maximum intensity of UHI would calculated between the two blocks equal to 5.2 degree.

Misconfiguration causes that energy leaving from city surface deal with the problem due to narrow passages and high buildings. Therefore, consideration appropriate width of passages and streets and height of buildings are necessary to ease heat leaving and reduce intensity of UHI.

These simulations showed that high buildings and narrow streets intensify the heat islands. While in the presence of short buildings and wide streets, the UHI max is lowered. When the ratio H / W in the studied urban area is between 0.54 to 0.81, UHI _max remains between 5 to 6.6 C˚, when this ratio increases to 1.01 to 1.98, UHI _max will be between 7.5 and 10.2 C˚. The result also revealed that block A and H with 5 and 10.2 C˚ have the minimum and maximum value of UHI intensity, respectively. So can be concluded that block A and H have the most standard and non-standard urban configuration in the region. The estimates from regression model showed that the street width (91.6%) is more effective than the height of the buildings (6.6%) in changing UHI _max.