scholarly journals Biophysical feedback of forest canopy height on land surface temperature over contiguous United States

Author(s):  
Zhijiang Zhang ◽  
Xinxin Li ◽  
Hongguang Liu

Abstract Forests are considered important to the mitigation of climate change. Biophysical effects of afforestation and deforestation on land surface temperature (LST) have been extensively documented. As a fundamental variable of forest structure, however, few studies have investigated the biophysical feedback of forest canopy height changes on LST at large scale. This study is designed to investigate the impact of forest canopy height changes on local land LST and clarify the biophysical processes controlling LST change from 2003 to 2005 over contiguous United States (CONUS) based on satellite observations. To this end, one satellite-based forest canopy height product is selected, and space-for-time approach together with energy balance equation is applied. Results show that for different forest types, namely evergreen forest (EF), deciduous forest (DF), and mixed forest (MF), taller forests present a net cooling effect (0.056 to 0.448 K) than shorter forests at annual scale. The increase in net radiation and sensible heat flux was less than the increase in the latent heat flux when forest canopy height classes converting from shorter to taller, resulting in annual net cooling effects. Furthermore, the cooling effect of EF is stronger than DF and MF, whether for tall, medium, or short forest canopy height classes. Multiple regression analysis reveals that the changes in biophysical components can effectively explain the LST change during growing season. Our findings provide a new insight for forest management decision in the purpose of mitigating climate warming.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 959 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanwei Sun ◽  
Chao Gao ◽  
Jialin Li ◽  
Run Wang ◽  
Jian Liu

It is widely acknowledged that urban form significantly affects urban thermal environment, which is a key element to adapt and mitigate extreme high temperature weather in high-density urban areas. However, few studies have discussed the impact of physical urban form features on the land surface temperature (LST) from a perspective of comprehensive urban spatial structures. This study used the ordinary least-squares regression (OLS) and random forest regression (RF) to distinguish the relative contributions of urban form metrics on LST at three observation scales. Results of this study indicate that more than 90% of the LST variations were explained by selected urban form metrics using RF. Effects of the magnitude and direction of urban form metrics on LST varied with the changes of seasons and observation scales. Overall, building morphology and urban ecological infrastructure had dominant effects on LST variations in high-density urban centers. Urban green space and water bodies demonstrated stronger cooling effects, especially in summer. Building density (BD) exhibited significant positive effects on LST, whereas the floor area ratio (FAR) showed a negative influence on LST. The results can be applied to investigate and implement urban thermal environment mitigation planning for city managers and planners.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1439
Author(s):  
Yuxuan Wu ◽  
Yi Xi ◽  
Maoyuan Feng ◽  
Shushi Peng

Wetlands play a critical role in global hydrological and biogeochemical cycles. Regulating the regional climate is one of the most important ecosystem services of natural wetlands. However, the impact of wetlands on local temperature on the global scale and the attribution is still unclear. This study utilizes the satellite-based products (land surface temperature (LST), albedo, and evapotranspiration (ET)) to evaluate the difference in LST between wetlands and their adjacent landcover types and the possible drivers. Here we show that on average for the whole year, wetlands have a cooling effect in tropical regions, but have a warming effect in boreal regions. The impacts of wetlands on LST show great seasonality in the boreal regions; i.e., the wetlands have a warming effect in winter but a cooling effect in summer. The difference in albedo and ET between wetlands and the other landcover types only interprets 30% of temporal variation of the difference in LST. Due to the large water storage in wetlands, the ground heat flux (G) may interpret the rest of the impact, absorbing energy in summer and releasing energy in winter in wetlands, which has often been neglected in previous studies. Our results indicate that it is critical to comprehensively consider the effects of wetland restoration in different regions to realize potential climatic benefits in the future.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Prodromou ◽  
Anastasia Yfantidou ◽  
Christos Theocharidis ◽  
Milto Miltiadou ◽  
Chris Danezis

<p>Forests are globally an important environmental and ecological resource since they retrain water through their routes and therefore limit flooding events and soil erosion from moderate rainfall. They also act as carbon sinks, provide food, clean water and natural habitat for humans and other species, including threatened ones. Recent reports stressed the vulnerability of EU forest ecosystem to climate change impacts (EEA, 2012) (IPPC, et al., 2014). Climate change is a significant factor in the increasing forest fires and tree species being unable to adapt to the severity and frequency of drought during the summer period. Consequently, the possibility of increased insect pests and tree diseases is high as trees have been weakened by the extreme weather conditions. In Cyprus, there are two types of pine trees that exists on Troodos mountains, Pinus Nigra and Pinus Brutia, that may have been influenced by the reduced snowfall and extended summer droughts during the last decades.</p><p> </p><p>The overarching aim of this project is to research the impact of Land Surface Temperature on Cypriot forests on Troodos mountains by analysing time-series of radar and thermal satellite data. Impacts may include forest decline that does not relate to fire events, decreased forest density and alternations to timing of forest blooming initiation, duration and termination. Radar systems emitted pulses that can penetrate forest canopy due to the size of its wavelength and, therefore, collect information between tree branches without being affected by clouds. This presentation will focus on radar analysis conducted; testing of various methods, and how the processing pipeline has been automated.</p><p> </p><p>The project ‘ASTARTE’ (EXCELLENCE/0918/0341) is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research Innovation Foundation.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1099
Author(s):  
Yuhe Ma ◽  
Mudan Zhao ◽  
Jianbo Li ◽  
Jian Wang ◽  
Lifa Hu

One of the climate problems caused by rapid urbanization is the urban heat island effect, which directly threatens the human survival environment. In general, some land cover types, such as vegetation and water, are generally considered to alleviate the urban heat island effect, because these landscapes can significantly reduce the temperature of the surrounding environment, known as the cold island effect. However, this phenomenon varies over different geographical locations, climates, and other environmental factors. Therefore, how to reasonably configure these land cover types with the cooling effect from the perspective of urban planning is a great challenge, and it is necessary to find the regularity of this effect by designing experiments in more cities. In this study, land cover (LC) classification and land surface temperature (LST) of Xi’an, Xianyang and its surrounding areas were obtained by Landsat-8 images. The land types with cooling effect were identified and their ideal configuration was discussed through grid analysis, distance analysis, landscape index analysis and correlation analysis. The results showed that an obvious cooling effect occurred in both woodland and water at different spatial scales. The cooling distance of woodland is 330 m, much more than that of water (180 m), but the land surface temperature around water decreased more than that around the woodland within the cooling distance. In the specific urban planning cases, woodland can be designed with a complex shape, high tree planting density and large planting areas while water bodies with large patch areas to cool the densely built-up areas. The results of this study have utility for researchers, urban planners and urban designers seeking how to efficiently and reasonably rearrange landscapes with cooling effect and in urban land design, which is of great significance to improve urban heat island problem.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 323
Author(s):  
Liang Chen ◽  
Xuelei Wang ◽  
Xiaobin Cai ◽  
Chao Yang ◽  
Xiaorong Lu

Rapid urbanization greatly alters land surface vegetation cover and heat distribution, leading to the development of the urban heat island (UHI) effect and seriously affecting the healthy development of cities and the comfort of living. As an indicator of urban health and livability, monitoring the distribution of land surface temperature (LST) and discovering its main impacting factors are receiving increasing attention in the effort to develop cities more sustainably. In this study, we analyzed the spatial distribution patterns of LST of the city of Wuhan, China, from 2013 to 2019. We detected hot and cold poles in four seasons through clustering and outlier analysis (based on Anselin local Moran’s I) of LST. Furthermore, we introduced the geographical detector model to quantify the impact of six physical and socio-economic factors, including the digital elevation model (DEM), index-based built-up index (IBI), modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), population, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on the LST distribution of Wuhan. Finally, to identify the influence of land cover on temperature, the LST of croplands, woodlands, grasslands, and built-up areas was analyzed. The results showed that low temperatures are mainly distributed over water and woodland areas, followed by grasslands; high temperatures are mainly concentrated over built-up areas. The maximum temperature difference between land covers occurs in spring and summer, while this difference can be ignored in winter. MNDWI, IBI, and NDVI are the key driving factors of the thermal values change in Wuhan, especially of their interaction. We found that the temperature of water area and urban green space (woodlands and grasslands) tends to be 5.4 °C and 2.6 °C lower than that of built-up areas. Our research results can contribute to the urban planning and urban greening of Wuhan and promote the healthy and sustainable development of the city.


2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (sup4) ◽  
pp. 74-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Barbierato ◽  
Iacopo Bernetti ◽  
Irene Capecchi ◽  
Claudio Saragosa

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Vladimír Sedlák ◽  
Katarína Onačillová ◽  
Michal Gallay ◽  
Jaroslav Hofierka ◽  
Ján Kaňuk ◽  
...  

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Current climate changes on a global scale require an optimal estimate of heat transfer in a complex urban environment as a part of the requirements for optimal urban planning in the conditions of a smart city. Urban greenery has a considerable impact on the cooling of the urban environment during thermal waves. Sentinel-2 as an Earth observation mission developed by the European Space Agency as part of the Copernicus Programme to perform terrestrial observations in support of various services could become a potential means also for quantified assessment of different urban scenarios where vegetation plays an essential role. The Sentinel-2 data provide higher spatial and temporal resolution than other similar missions allow.</p><p>The presented research study is aimed at exploiting the potential of Sentinel-2 in simulating the cooling effect of urban greenery as part of smart city mapping in assessing the quality of life of its inhabitants. The main objective of the research study is to define a methodical approach for spatial surface temperature modelling in selected urban areas based on the solar radiation modelling and parameterization of the land cover properties from the Sentinel-2 data. While solar irradiation can be accurately calculated at a fine scale using virtual 3D city models, it is difficult to find other important parameters for ground surface modelling such as surface thermal emissivity, broadband albedo and evapotranspiration. The research study was tested and verified in 4&amp;thinsp;sq.&amp;thinsp;km urban area in the selected central parts of the city of Košice in Slovakia (Figure 1). For a detailed survey, four sites (site 1 &amp;ndash; Moyzesova Street, site 2 &amp;ndash; Historical centre, site 3 &amp;ndash; City park, site 4 &amp;ndash; Hvozdíkov park) were chosen in the central city area. The virtual 3D urban model was created from the airborne LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging, hereinafter referred to as the lidar) and photogrammetric data obtained in a single mission.</p><p>The aim of the research study was to assess the feasibility of using virtual 3D city models and multispectral satellite images to approximate surface temperature dynamics by modelling of the spatial distribution of solar radiation and land surface characteristics in a complex urban environment. A time-series of the Sentinel-2 data was collected for comparison with the reference time series of the terrestrial lidar (TLS &amp;ndash; Terrestrial Laser Scanning) data on urban greenery on four selected urban areas of the city of Košice. Between the vegetation metrics, the statistical linear relationship derived from the Sentinel-2 and TLS data was defined. Based on terrain mapping, a geobotanic database of urban trees was created. The algorithmic structure of a toolbox for the land surface temperature modelling in the open-source GRASS GIS was developed based on the Stefan-Boltzmann law and Kirchhoff rule.</p><p>This research study has highlighted how the Sentinel-2 data can be used to estimate of the broad-band albedo, surface emission, and solar transmittance to the vegetation of urban greenery. The main benefit of the research study is the developed algorithm for estimation of the land surface temperature in a GIS environment that provides a unique platform for integrating different types of data-sets to become usable in urban planning and for exploitation of the Sentinel-2 data in mitigation of a negative impact of the urban extreme heat islands on the quality of life of inhabitants. The resulting LST (Land Surface Temperature) was calculated for four scenarios using the detail of the study area of the site 1 (Figure 2) and whole study are (Figure 3) demonstrate. These figures also show the cooling effect of urban trees and shrubs.</p>


Author(s):  
M. K. Firozjaei ◽  
M. Makki ◽  
J. Lentschke ◽  
M. Kiavarz ◽  
S. K. Alavipanah

Abstract. Spatiotemporal mapping and modeling of Land Surface Temperature (LST) variations and characterization of parameters affecting these variations are of great importance in various environmental studies. The aim of this study is a spatiotemporal modeling the impact of surface characteristics variations on LST variations for the studied area in Samalghan Valley. For this purpose, a set of satellite imagery and meteorological data measured at the synoptic station during 1988–2018, were used. First, single-channel algorithm, Tasseled Cap Transformation (TCT) and Biophysical Composition Index (BCI) were employed to estimate LST and surface biophysical parameters including brightness, greenness and wetness and BCI. Also, spatial modeling was used to modeling of terrain parameters including slope, aspect and local incident angle based on DEM. Finally, the principal component analysis (PCA) and the Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) were used to modeling and investigate the impact of surface characteristics variations on LST variations. The results indicated that surface characteristics vary significantly for case study in spatial and temporal dimensions. The correlation coefficient between the PC1 of LST and PC1s of brightness, greenness, wetness, BCI, DEM, and solar local incident angle were 0.65, −0.67, −0.56, 0.72, −0.43 and 0.53, respectively. Furthermore, the coefficient coefficient and RMSE between the observed LST variation and modelled LST variation based on PC1s of brightness, greenness, wetness, BCI, DEM, and local incident angle were 0.83 and 0.14, respectively. The results of study indicated the LST variation is a function of s terrain and surface biophysical parameters variations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 809
Author(s):  
Jing Sun ◽  
Suwit Ongsomwang

Land surface temperature (LST) is an essential parameter in the climate system whose dynamics indicate climate change. This study aimed to assess the impact of multitemporal land use and land cover (LULC) change on LST due to urbanization in Hefei City, Anhui Province, China. The research methodology consisted of four main components: Landsat data collection and preparation; multitemporal LULC classification; time-series LST dataset reconstruction; and impact of multitemporal LULC change on LST. The results revealed that urban and built-up land continuously increased from 2.05% in 2001 to 13.25% in 2020. Regarding the impact of LULC change on LST, the spatial analysis demonstrated that the LST difference between urban and non-urban areas had been 1.52 K, 3.38 K, 2.88 K and 3.57 K in 2001, 2006, 2014 and 2020, respectively. Meanwhile, according to decomposition analysis, regarding the influence of LULC change on LST, the urban and built-up land had an intra-annual amplitude of 20.42 K higher than other types. Thus, it can be reconfirmed that land use and land cover changes due to urbanization in Hefei City impact the land surface temperature.


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