Cool island effects of urban remnant natural mountains for cooling communities: A case study of Guiyang, China

Abstract

With the rapid development of urbanization, abundant cone-shaped or tower-shaped karst peaks and peak forests were surrounded by human-dominated urban matrix, forming urban remnant natural mountains (URNMs). URNMs, as the precious ecological resources, could provide a variety of ecosystem services in cities. In order to explore the cool island effects of URNMs, taking the built-up area of the Guiyang city center as the study area and the URNMs as the research object, the cool island effects of URNMs and factors that influence their cooling amplitudes were analyzed through a land surface temperature (LST) inversion with the mono-window algorithm and buffer, correlation and regression analyses. Results showed that : (1) URNMs were the main contributing source to LST reduction, which had cool island effects on their surrounding communities, (2) the average cooling distance was approximately 170 m, and the cooling range was 0.2–2.5 °C, (3) the landscape structure and patch density of the surrounding buffer matrix had a significant influence on mountain cool island (MCI) intensity in the range of 330 m. Results of this study could provide guidance for urban planners and policy makers to protect and manage URNMs and improve urban community spatial planning to alleviate urban heat island effect.