Journal
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Volume 841, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156687
Keywords
Green space equity; Urban heat island; Land surface temperature; Gini coefficient; Dongguan city
Categories
Funding
- National Key Research & Development Program of China [2016YFC0502800]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [52170178]
- Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation [2019A1515110681]
- Social Develop-ment Science and Technology Project of Dongguan [20211800905252]
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The study finds that increasing the amount of urban green space (UGS) can help reduce the average land surface temperature (LST) in cities, and promoting the spatial equity of UGS distribution can reduce the spatial aggregation of LSTs within urban areas, thereby improving the urban thermal environment.
The role of urban green space (UGS) in mitigating the urban heat island (UHI) effect has been demonstrated in a growing body of literature. However, the potential influence of the spatial equity of UGS distribution on the UHI effect has largely been overlooked. The present study aims to identify this potential influence using the spatial equity of UGS and the land surface temperature (LST) as measures of UGS spatial distribution and UHIs, respectively. A comprehensive spatial distribution map of UGS was generated by combining the UGS coverage fraction data within urban impervious pixels and the green cover data outside urban impervious pixels. Then, the spatial equity of UGS distribution across all urban impervious pixels was determined using the Gini coefficient. In addition, an LST map was derived using the thermal infrared spectral bands of Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS products. A case study of Dongguan, a highly urbanized city in China, showed that (1) the distribution of both UGS and LSTs were spatially aggregated in all the towns of the city, (2) the LST of urban impervious pixels was negatively correlated with the area of surrounding UGS, and (3) the Gini coefficient of UGS was positively correlated with the proportion of hot and cool areas, but negatively correlated with the proportion of medium hot and medium-cool areas. These findings indicate that increasing the amount of UGS is beneficial to the reduction of urban average LSTs, while promoting the spatial equity of UGS distribution is conducive to reducing the spatial aggregation of LSTs within urban areas, thereby improving the overall urban thermal environment. Therefore, as a nature based solution, promoting the spatial equity of UGS distribution could enhance the overall cooling effect of UGS more effectively at the city scale, and thus further underpin the sustainable development of the urban environment.
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