Abstract
Urban heat islands (UHIs) are one of the urban management challenges, especially in metropolises, which can affect citizens’ health and well-being. This study used a combination of remote sensing techniques with field survey to investigate systematically the effects of UHI on citizens’ health in Isfahan metropolis, Iran. For this purpose, the land surface temperature (LST) over a three-year period was monitored by Landsat-8 satellite imagery based on the split window algorithm. Then, the areas where UHI and urban cold island (UCI) phenomena occurred were identified and a general health questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) was applied to evaluate the health status of 800 citizens in terms of physical health, anxiety and sleep, social function, and depression in UHI and UCI treatments. The average LST during the study period was 45.5 ± 2.3 °C and results showed that the Zayandeh-Rood river and the surrounding greenery had an important role in regulating the ambient temperature and promoting the citizens’ health. Citizens living in the suburban areas were more exposed to the UHIs phenomena, and statistical analysis of the GHQ-28 results indicated that they showed severe significant (P < 0.05) responses in terms of non-physical health sub-scales (i.e., anxiety and sleep, social functioning, and depression). Therefore, it can be concluded that not all citizens in the Isfahan metropolis are in the same environmental conditions and city managers and planners should pay more attention to the citizens living in the UHIs. The most important proceedings in this area would be the creation and development of parks and green belts, as well as the allocation of health-medical facilities and citizen education.
Highlights
Over the last decades, global warming has threated human and environment health [1,2,3,4]
land surface temperature (LST) monitoring was carried out on the summer of 2016, 2017, and 2018 with nine images of the Landsat satellite in Isfahan metropolis based on the split-window algorithm (SWA)
Due to the adverse effects of urban heat islands (UHIs) on human health, energy consumption, and environment components, evaluating the distribution patterns of this phenomenon can play a significant role in mitigating Urban heat islands (UHIs) effects, especially in metropolises
Summary
Global warming has threated human and environment health [1,2,3,4]. Urbanization and urban activities can exacerbate the effects of global warming, as more populations are exposed to heating effects [5,6]. Urban land use can cause the local air and surface temperatures to increase several degrees higher than the temperatures of the surrounding environment [10,11,12]. This phenomenon is often referred to as an urban heat island (UHI), which has been documented since Howard [13]. In many previous studies the occurrence of the UHI phenomenon was considered as one of the most important problems of overheating in urban areas (e. g., Li et al [17] in Shanghai, Enete et al [18] in Douala, Umar et al [19] in Kano, and de Faria Peres et al [20] in Rio de Janeiro)
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