Abstract
The urban heat island (UHI) effect accelerates the accumulation of atmospheric pollutants, which has a strong impact on the climate of cities, circulation of material, and health of citizens. Therefore, it is of great significance to conduct quantitative monitoring and accurate governance of UHI by calculating the index rapidly and expressing spatial distribution accurately. In this paper, we proposed a model that integrates UHI information with the GeoSOT (Geographic Coordinate Subdividing Grid with One-Dimension Integer Coding on 2n Tree) grid and subsequently designed the calculation method of UHI indices and expression method of UHI spatial distribution. The UHI indices were calculated on Dongcheng and Xicheng District, Beijing, in the Summer of 2014 to 2019. Experimental results showed that the proposed method has higher calculation efficiency, and achieved a more detailed description of the spatial distribution of the urban thermal environment compared with the Gaussian surface fitting method. This method can be used for large-scale and high-frequency monitoring the level of UHI and expressing complicated spatial distribution of UHI inside the city, thus supporting accurate governance of UHI.
Highlights
Rapid urbanization has significantly increased the impervious surface of urban areas and affected the urban thermal cycle
Experimental results showed that the proposed method has higher calculation efficiency, and achieved a more detailed description of the spatial distribution of the urban thermal environment compared with the Gaussian surface fitting method
Traditional urban heat island (UHI) monitoring methods use indices such as UHI intensity, UHI footprint, UHI capacity, and heat island proportion index to describe the level of the UHI, and the spatial distribution is usually expressed by the UHI intensity surface [5,6,7,8,9,10]
Summary
Rapid urbanization has significantly increased the impervious surface of urban areas and affected the urban thermal cycle. The population agglomeration, the growth of traffic volume, prosperous commercial activities, and industrial activities have caused the heat accumulation in urban areas, which leads to the urban heat island (UHI) effect [1,2]. This phenomenon has significantly influenced the climate, hydrology, material circulation, and energy metabolism of urban areas, and aggravated the accumulation of urban air pollutants, which adversely affect the lives and health of urban dwellers [3,4]. Zhan & Yang [16,17]
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