How does 2D and 3D of urban morphology affect the seasonal land surface temperature in Island City? A block-scale perspective

Abstract

The global climate warming caused by urbanization has significantly affected the urban environment. Whilst land surface temperature (LST) is an important factor reflecting urban temperature, previous research on LST mostly focused on two-dimensional (2D) factors and rarely mentioned about the role of three-dimensional (3D) factors, particularly the LST variation characteristics of island cities. Therefore, this study examined the seasonal variation characteristics of urban LST by analyzing the impact of 2D and 3D urban morphology factors of different urban block types on LST in Xiamen Island. The main results are as follows. First, compact low layer (CL), a block type with a higher density of low-rise buildings, has a higher LST in any season. Under the same block density (BD), the higher the block average height (BH), the lower the LST. Second, among the 2D urban morphology factors, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was the main factor for cities to reduce urban LST, especially in summer, while normalized difference built-up index (NDBI) was the opposite. Different from land cities, we found a positive correlation between modified normalized difference water body index (MNDWI) and LST in autumn and winter. Third, in the 3D urban morphology factors, sky view factor (SVF) was significantly positively correlated with LST, while building fluctuation (BF) was negatively correlated. The higher the SVF, the worse the radiation shielding effect between buildings. On the contrary, the higher the BF, the higher the building undulation, and the better the building radiation shielding. These findings should provide some quantitative insights for the future construction and planning of island cities, which can be used to improve the thermal environment of island cities and support the sustainable development of cities.