Cooling Potential Simulation of Urban Green Space Using Remote Sensing and Web-Based GIS Integration in Panat Nikom Municipality, Thailand

Abstract

The most important local and global change driving force is urbanization because it progressively replaces natural surfaces with built surfaces. These causes enhance the urban heat island phenomenon where the temperature in the urban area is higher than the temperature in the countryside around the city. Increasing urban green space can play an important role in reducing the urban heat island effects and providing comfort to the nearby area. It can also contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 11, which aims to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. This study aimed to develop a web-based simulation platform for examining local temperature changes from the change in the proportion of green space in the city. The Worldview-3 imagery was used for green space area extraction through NDVI and land surface temperature from Landsat 8 OLI. The relationship between surface temperature and the green area was studied with NDVI using regression analysis to develop an equation for land surface temperature calculated according to the changes in the green area. The web-based GIS platform was developed using open source with Geoserver and LeafletJS using an equation developed for exploring and simulating the cooling potential of urban green spaces through a web user interface. The temperature was more related to the NDVI, which can refer to the quality of the green area rather than the size of the green space. It was concluded that the cooling potential of such green areas is determined mainly by the quantity and quality of the green space, which is essential to increasing or decreasing the local temperature and ecological environment. Setting the target for reducing the temperature to the comfort level might require tools that allow urban policymakers to know the level of temperature in the area and the temperature drop changes by increasing green area proportion to determine how much more green space the city has needs.