Analyzing the Diurnal and Spatial Variation of Surface Urban Heat Island Intensity Distribution - Focused on 30 cities in Korea -

Abstract

The urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon is mainly caused by urbanization and adversely affects humans and the environment. Since the spatial and temporal distribution of urban heat islands (UHIs) are irregular, effective mitigation of the effect of UHIs requires an understanding of these distribution in terms of the surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII). In this work, we calculated the day and night SUHII values in 30 cities of South Korea using MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data collected during the summer (June to August) from 2010 to 2015. Correlation analysis was performed to analyze the variables affecting SUHII. Multi-regression analysis based on the correlation analysis was performed to select significant predictors of SUHII for daytime and nighttime. The daytime SUHII, which was affected by precipitation, was found to be higher than the nighttime SUHII, which was affected by the average temperature. However, both were thought to be affected by the albedo, population density, and distance from the sea. These results can be used to suggest various strategies for an effective UHI mitigation.