Spatial differentiation of neighborhood climates and their response to surrounding land cover composition: A case study in Beijing, China

Abstract

Heterogeneous land cover affects near-surface heat and humidity distribution in urban areas. Effective land cover arrangements can create a more sustainable local thermal environment. However, spatial differentiation in neighborhood climates and their spatial response range to the surrounding land cover composition (LCC) in high-density urban environments remains unclear. In this study, field monitoring of the air temperature (Ta) and relative humidity (Rh) was conducted in summer (August 2016) and winter (December 2016 and January 2017) in a neighborhood in Beijing, China. A multi-radius approach was developed to quantify the effective response range of Ta and Rh at unshaded measuring points to the surrounding LCC. Our results demonstrated that the: (1) spatial distribution of Ta and Rh in a typical neighborhood varies significantly in both summer and winter and is dependent on the local land cover; (2) Ta at measurement points generally increases with growing surrounding vegetation coverage and decreases with less impervious pavement and building coverage, whereas the opposite applies to Rh; (3) response of Ta and Rh to land cover composition is spatially dependent; and (4) Ta and Rh have an effective response range of up to 200-m to surrounding vegetation coverage in both seasons, whereas their response range to pavement coverage is 150- and 100-m in summer and winter, respectively. Overall, LCC within a radius of 100–150-m has a significant impact on the Ta and Rh of the measuring points in a high-density urban neighborhood. These findings elucidate the spatial response of a neighborhood climate to surrounding land cover and demonstrate that landscape infrastructure intervention is an effective means of improving urban thermal environments.