A study of the urban heat island effect in Guangzhou

Abstract

As the world economy continues to grow and energy consumption increases, the global climate is gradually warming. Among them, the economic activities in metropolitan areas are more intense compared to other areas, forming an urban heat island effect where the temperature in the urban area is higher than that in the surrounding areas. This article selects Guangzhou, a rapidly developing city in southern China over the past two decades, as a case study. Surface temperature data for five time periods, namely 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020, are collected to analyse how Guangzhou is affected by the urban heat island effect and its relationship with land use status and population density. The results of the article found that the urban heat island effect in Guangzhou is very obvious, mainly in the central and southern parts of the city, where the spatial distribution and evolution of land use type and population density are significantly related to the intensity of the heat island effect. In the future, Guangzhou can alleviate the impact of climate change and urban heat island effect by rationally planning urban layout, optimizing urban ecological environment, improving the material of urban underlying surface and actively developing renewable energy.