Drivers and projections of global surface temperature anomalies at the local scale

More than half of the world's population now lives in urban areas, and trends in rural-to-urban migration are expected to continue through the end of the century. Although cities create efficiencies that drive innovation and economic growth, they also alter the local surface energy balance, resulting in urban temperatures that can differ dramatically from surrounding areas. Here we introduce a global 1 km resolution data set of seasonal and diurnal anomalies in urban surface temperatures relative to their rural surroundings. We then use satellite-observable parameters in a simple model informed by the surface energy balance to understand the dominant drivers of present urban heating, the heat-related impacts of projected future urbanization, and the potential for policies to mitigate those damages. At present, urban populations live in areas with daytime surface summer temperatures that are 3.21 C-circle (-3.97, 9.24, 5th-95th percentiles) warmer than surrounding rural areas. If the structure of cities remains largely unchanged, city growth is projected to result in additional daytime summer surface temperature heat anomalies of 0.19 C-circle (-0.01, 0.47) in 2100-in addition to warming due to climate change. This is projected to raise the urban population living under extreme surface temperatures by approximately 20% compared to current distributions. However we also find a significant potential for mitigation: 82% of all urban areas have below average vegetation and/or surface albedo. Optimizing these would reduce urban daytime summer surface temperatures for the affected populations by an average of -0.81 C-circle (-2.55, -0.05).

Automated summary

More than half of the world's population now lives in urban areas, and trends in rural-to-urban migration are expected to continue through the end of the century. Cities can alter the local surface energy balance, resulting in urban temperatures that differ dramatically from surrounding areas. Optimizing vegetation and surface albedo in urban areas has the potential to mitigate urban heat anomalies.