Abstract
Understanding the relationship between urban structure and ecological function—or environmental performance—is important for the planning of sustainable cities, and requires examination of how components in urban systems are organized. In this paper, we develop a Structure of Urban Landscape (STURLA) classification, identifying common compositions of urban components using Berlin, Germany as a case study. We compute the surface temperature corresponding to each classification grid cell, and perform within-cell and neighborhood analysis for the most common composite classes in Berlin. We found that with-class composition and neighborhood composition as well as the interaction between them drive surface temperature. Our findings suggest that the spatial organization of urban components is important in determining the surface temperature and that specific combinations, such as low-rise buildings surrounded by neighborhood trees, or mid-rise buildings surrounded by high-rise buildings, compound to create a cooling effect. These findings are important for developing an understanding of how urban planning can harness structure-function relationships and improve urban sustainability.
Highlights
Urbanization is a core process affecting our ability to address the local and global challenges of sustainability
In previous papers using the Structure of Urban Landscape (STURLA) classification, it was demonstrated that classes created by the random application of a grid cell other than urban landscape can create meaningful composite classes and these can help explain the nuanced interaction between urban structure and surface temperature [11]
In this paper we delved into the relationship between surface temperature and the composition of one such composite class, an urban building block common to Berlin: –grass/shrubs (g) –tree canopy (t) –low-rise (l) –mid-rise (m) –roads-other paved (p) –bare soil (b)
Summary
Recent literature on urban ecosystem services (ES) [2] and urban ecology [3] highlights the importance of natural processes within cities and the ways in which they benefit human wellbeing. Understanding cities as integrated human-nature systems can support the development of sustainable urban solutions [4]. Urban spatial structure is important in understanding urban ES provision, and it can provide a bridge to planning sustainable cities [5]. A functional classification of urban structure is necessary for understanding the nature of social-ecological relationships in urban areas [3,9,10]. Different classification units and scales were tested, along with their relationship to one biophysical function that is important for human health in cities: urban surface temperature
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