A new framework quantifying the effect of morphological features on urban temperatures

Urban morphology varies within and among cities. Previous literature well discussed how 2D/3D morphology affects land surface temperature (LST) from physical form, scale and time. However, they focused on ranking the contributions. How quantifying the heating/cooling efficiency and conducting multi-cities comparisons is challenging. This study proposed a new framework to process this issue by integrating cities, scales, and seasons. Among 24 cities close to China's Eastern Seaboard, building coverage ratio (BCR), building height (BH), surface developed ratio (SDR), and tree height (TH) were dominant contributors to LST over seasons. Among them, TH had the highest cooling efficiency, although it varied from cities. For every 1 m increase, LST decreased about 0.3 degrees C in northern cities during summer and tiny during winter, while LST decreased about 0.2 circle C in southern cities during both summer and winter. Economic activities significantly affected the heating/cooling efficiency of dominant building features. High economic levels and population aggregation cause a significant increase in the heating effect of BCR, but a decrease in the cooling effect of BH and SDR, which collectively leads to a warmer environment. According to the results, this study offered several recommendations for better local adaptation strategies of urban transformation, with a focus on heat management.

Automated summary

This study proposes a new framework to quantify the impact of urban morphology on land surface temperature (LST) by integrating cities, scales, and seasons. The results show that building coverage ratio, building height, surface developed ratio, and tree height are the dominant contributors to LST. The study also highlights the significant influence of economic activities on the heating/cooling efficiency of building features.