Analyzing the Spatial Heterogeneity of the Built Environment and Its Impact on the Urban Thermal Environment-Case Study of Downtown Shanghai

Ongoing urban expansion has accelerated the explosive growth of urban populations and has led to a dramatic increase in the impervious surface area within urban areas. This, in turn, has exacerbated the surface heat island effect within cities. However, the importance of the surface heat island effect within urban areas, scilicet the intra-SUHI effect, has attracted less concern. The aim of this study was to quantitatively explore the relationship between the spatial heterogeneity of a built environment and the intra-urban surface heat island (intra-SUHI) effect using the thermally sharpened land surface temperature (LST) and high-resolution land-use classification products. The results show that at the land parcel scale, the parcel-based relative intensity of intra-SUHI should be attributed to the land parcels featured with differential land developmental intensity. Furthermore, the partial least squares regression (PLSR) modeling quantified the relative importance of the spatial heterogeneity indices of the built environment that exhibit a negative contribution to decreasing the parcel-based intra-SUHI effect or a positive contribution to increasing the intra-SUHI effect. Finally, based on the findings of this study, some practical countermeasures towards mitigating the adverse intra-SUHI effect and improving urban climatic adaption are discussed.

Automated summary

This study quantitatively explored the relationship between the spatial heterogeneity of a built environment and the intra-urban surface heat island effect. It found that at the land parcel scale, the intensity of the intra-SUHI effect is related to the differential land developmental intensity. Partial least squares regression analysis showed the impact of spatial heterogeneity indices of the built environment on the intra-SUHI effect. Practical countermeasures to mitigate the adverse intra-SUHI effect and improve urban climatic adaption were discussed based on the findings of the study.