Effect of urban growth pattern on land surface temperature in China: A multi-scale landscape analysis of 338 cities

The process of urbanization leads to an increase in land surface temperature (LST). In this study, a spatial autocorrelation regression model was used to conduct empirical research on 338 cities in China to quantify the relationships between urban growth pattern (UGP) and LST in 2015 at both the patch and city scales. The investigated Chinese cities were assigned to four temperature zones, and reasonable urban morphology and socioeconomic indicators were selected as the control variables. In general, at the patch scale, the more compact the urban growth was, the more easily the surface warmed. Significant and positive correlations with LST were observed for edge expansion and infilling in most of the temperature zones. However, the influence of outlying on LST had opposing results: negative correlations were observed in the subtropical and middle temperature zones, and positive correlations were observed in the warm temperature and plateau climatic zones. The results also showed that patch area, industrial enterprise density, population density, and road density exerted different significant effects on LST. This study further verified the existence of a scale effect; moreover, the results of patch-scale research based on the microscopic perspective were deemed to be more accurate. Overall, understanding the quantitative relationships between UGP and LST is helpful for assessing the complexity of urban climates and for providing a scientific basis for planners and urban managers to optimize urban layouts.

Automated summary

The study found significant positive correlations between the compactness of urban growth and land surface temperature, which varied across different temperature zones. Additionally, different factors were shown to have significant effects on land surface temperature, and the existence of a scale effect was confirmed.