scholarly journals Identification of Urban Heat Islands &Its Relationship withVegetation Cover: A Case Study of Colombo & Gampaha Districts in Sri Lanka

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
G.M.T.S. Fernando

Global Warming is a major environmental problem that all kind of organisms has been affected at present. Urban Heat Island (UHI) is one of primary impacts of Global Warming. UHI is a phenomenon that the temperature of urban area is higher than surrounding rural areas or suburban areas. This increasing trend of temperature in urban areas affects many environmental entities such as air quality, water resources, habitats behaviors and climate changes. The most remarkable incident that relate with UHI is the difference of thermal properties of the surfaces. Many countries experience the consequences of Urban Heat Islands in many aspects such as economic, health, social and environmental affects. Thus to mitigate such impacts of UHI, it is very important to identify the main reasons behind this. In this paper UHIs in Colombo, Gampaha Districts and the relationship between UHI and vegetation cover were analyzed based on Landsat 8, 30m resolution data. Land Surface Temperature was derived from Landsat thermal Infrared band through several equations of United State Geological Survay (USGS) guidelines using Arc GIS 10. Conversion of Digital Number (DN) values to Top of Atmosphere (TOA) Radiance, Conversion of TOA Radiance to Satellite Brightness temperature and final calculation of Land Surface Temperature considering land surface emissivity are the steps that had been done for the analysis. Vegetation cover was derived by using vegetation index with the Red and Near Infra Red bands. The result shows that the land high surface temperature directly relates with the urbanized regions where vegetation cover is very less. High temperature difference could be identified that cause to arise the urban heat island effects in Colombo & Gampaha districts. There is a strong linearly negative correlation with correlation coefficient value of -0.742 between land surface temperature and vegetation cover. 78.8 km2 (including water) of total area had been identified as NDVI value less than 0.1. And extent of high temperature area was 74.12 km2 where temperature more than 27oC at 10.22am. The area in temperature range of 25-27 was 464.95km2 and area in NDVI value range 0.1-0.2 was 333.04 km2. 1471.1 km2 was identified as NDVI value between 0.3-0.4 and the area at low temperature was 1529 km2where temperature less than 25oC. According to this results, high temperature at non-vegetated areas and low temperature at vegetated areas could be noted very clearly. This is probably due to the ecological function of vegetation that lay down the surface temperature from high evapotranspiration. Vegetated areas are mostly sensed with surface temperature.Thus research output can be useful for policy-makers and planners of development projects such as Western province Megapolis project as well as for general public to understand the urban heat island effects and importance of vegetation cover to mitigate such impacts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Paula Andrés-Anaya ◽  
María Sánchez-Aparicio ◽  
Susana del Pozo ◽  
Susana Lagüela

Albedo and Land Surface Temperature (LST) are thermophysical parameters that define the behavior of cities in terms of Urban Heat Islands (UHIs). Both parameters are correlated in such a way that materials with low values of albedo (associated with low reflection rates of solar radiation) result in higher heat absorption, and consequently, in higher LST values. This tendency reinforces the effect of UHI. Thus, the use of materials with high values of albedo in building envelopes can be a solution to reduce heat accumulation within cities and to subsequently improve the temperature reduction at nighttime.



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.





Author(s):  
A. Tahooni ◽  
A. A. Kakroodi

Abstract. Urban Heat Island (UHI) refers to the development of higher urban temperatures of an urban area compared to the temperatures of surrounding suburban and rural areas. Highly reflective urban materials to solar radiation present a significantly lower surface temperature and contribute to reducing the sensible heat released in the atmosphere and mitigating the urban heat island. Many studies of the UHI effect have been based on Land Surface Temperature (LST) measurements from remote sensors. The remotely sensed UHI has been termed the surface urban heat island (SUHI) effect. This study examines Tabriz city land use/land cover (LULC) and LST changes using Landsat satellite images between 2000 and 2017. Maximum likelihood classification and single channel methods were used for LULC classification and LST retrieval respectively. Results show that impervious surface has increased 13.79% and bare soil area has decreased 16.2%. The results also revealed bare soil class LST after a constant trend become increasing. It also revealed the impervious surface LST has a decreasing trend between 2000 and 2011 and has a little change. Using materials that have low absorption and high reflectance decrease the effect of heat island considerably.



Author(s):  
Chunhong Zhao

The Local Climate Zones (LCZs) concept was initiated in 2012 to improve the documentation of Urban Heat Island (UHI) observations. Despite the indispensable role and initial aim of LCZs concept in metadata reporting for atmospheric UHI research, its role in surface UHI investigation also needs to be emphasized. This study incorporated LCZs concept to study surface UHI effect for San Antonio, Texas. LCZ map was developed by a GIS-based LCZs classification scheme with the aid of airborne Lidar dataset and other freely available GIS data. Then, the summer LST was calculated based Landsat imagery, which was used to analyse the relations between LST and LCZs and the statistical significance of the differences of LST among the typical LCZs, in order to test if LCZs are able to efficiently facilitate SUHI investigation. The linkage of LCZs and land surface temperature (LST) indicated that the LCZs mapping can be used to compare and investigate the SUHI. Most of the pairs of LCZs illustrated significant differences in average LSTs with considerable significance. The intra-urban temperature comparison among different urban classes contributes to investigate the influence of heterogeneous urban morphology on local climate formation.



2016 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 94-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Bokaie ◽  
Mirmasoud Kheirkhah Zarkesh ◽  
Peyman Daneshkar Arasteh ◽  
Ali Hosseini


Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guglielmina Mutani ◽  
Valeria Todeschi

There is growing attention to the use of greenery in urban areas, in various forms and functions, as an instrument to reduce the impact of human activities on the urban environment. The aim of this study has been to investigate the use of green roofs as a strategy to reduce the urban heat island effect and to improve the thermal comfort of indoor and outdoor environments. The effects of the built-up environment, the presence of vegetation and green roofs, and the urban morphology of the city of Turin (Italy) have been assessed considering the land surface temperature distribution. This analysis has considered all the information recorded by the local weather stations and satellite images, and compares it with the geometrical and typological characteristics of the city in order to find correlations that confirm that greenery and vegetation improve the livability of an urban context. The results demonstrate that the land-surface temperature, and therefore the air temperature, tend to decrease as the green areas increase. This trend depends on the type of urban context. Based on the results of a green-roofs investigation of Turin, the existing and potential green roofs are respectively almost 300 (257,380 m2) and 15,450 (6,787,929 m2). Based on potential assessment, a strategy of priority was established according to the characteristics of building, to the presence of empty spaces, and to the identification of critical areas, in which the thermal comfort conditions are poor with low vegetation. This approach can be useful to help stakeholders, urban planners, and policy makers to effectively mitigate the urban heat island (UHI), improve the livability of the city, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and gain thermal comfort conditions, and to identify policies and incentives to promote green roofs.



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