Urban heat islands in relation to green land use in European cities

Abstract

The phenomenon of increased temperature in cities compared to their rural environs, also referred to as urban heat island, is one of the most evident anthropogenic climatic modifications. Introducing green spaces and vegetation is the fastest, simplest, and a highly effective way of mitigating and adapting urban temperature conditions. The primary goal of the presented research is to identify the interrelationship between urban heat island magnitude (UHIM) and urban green infrastructure extent, shape, and distribution on European scale comparing different green space planning traditions – planning families (PFs). The UHIM for the European cities was calculated based on a reconstructed MODIS LST dataset of a period of ten years.The reasons for the arrangement of UHIMs according to PFs and green land use are not easily explained and are certainly influenced by a number of various conditions in different PFs. UHIM increases with the longitude of cities. In some of the PFs, the relation between the UHIM and land use proportion is characteristic for certain land uses, but a considerable difference between PFs regarding land use proportion with significant impact on UHIM can only be noted in case of a forest. The configuration and composition of the forest correlate with UHIM with statistical significance, but the share of the forest does not affect UHI in all PFs in the same way. While a higher proportion of forest, higher largest patch index, higher mean patch area, higher edge density and higher proportional landscape core is associated with a lower UHIM in the New member and Mediterranean PFs, the relationship in other PFs is reversed.Information on general patterns of UHIM occurrence in relation to urban green infrastructure characteristics could help urban planners and politicians introduce changes on the local level, which would help providing nature-based solutions for the mitigation of the UHI phenomenon.