scholarly journals The urban heat island and the features of the flora in the Lublin City area, SE Poland

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Rysiak ◽  
Bożenna Czarnecka

Various forms of human activity in large cities contribute to the creation of a specific climate and new environmental conditions for plants. One of the most important results is the so-called atmospheric urban heat island (UHI). The aim of this study was to compare the thermal conditions in the Lublin City center with those of suburban areas, and so confirm the existence of the UHI and then analyze the influence of thermal conditions on features of the flora. The analysis of the air temperatures was based on data from 2000 to 2014 provided by meteorological stations in the Lublin City center and its nearest surroundings. Floristic data were collected during field studies between 2012–2014 and included species richness and frequency, life forms, and synecological groups of the flora and its elements. The thermal requirements of species were defined on the basis of ecological indicator values (EIVs). Our research confirmed the presence of the UHI in the Lublin City center. Over the study period, the mean temperature in the city center was by 0.87°C higher than that in the suburban areas. The largest differences in mean annual air temperature between the city center and the suburbs were recorded in 2007 and 2011–2013. In total, 552 species were recorded, including six life-form and synecological groups, 246 thermophilous and 436 heliophilous species. The species richness, proportion of therophytes, alien, thermo- and heliophilous species decreased with distance from the city center. The thermal conditions expressed by the EIV L and T ranged from L = 4.5, T = 3.8 in the city center, to L = 3.1, T = 3.4 in the suburbs. An ordination analysis facilitated determination of the relationships between characteristics of the flora, the EIV values, and land use classes. An increasing level of anthropopressure was found to be positively correlated with thermal conditions and the flora traits.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 726
Author(s):  
Md. Omar Sarif ◽  
Bhagawat Rimal ◽  
Nigel E. Stork

More than half of the world’s populations now live in rapidly expanding urban and its surrounding areas. The consequences for Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) dynamics and Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) phenomena are poorly understood for many new cities. We explore this issue and their inter-relationship in the Kathmandu Valley, an area of roughly 694 km2, at decadal intervals using April (summer) Landsat images of 1988, 1998, 2008, and 2018. LULC assessment was made using the Support Vector Machine algorithm. In the Kathmandu Valley, most land is either natural vegetation or agricultural land but in the study period there was a rapid expansion of impervious surfaces in urban areas. Impervious surfaces (IL) grew by 113.44 km2 (16.34% of total area), natural vegetation (VL) by 6.07 km2 (0.87% of total area), resulting in the loss of 118.29 km2 area from agricultural land (17.03% of total area) during 1988–2018. At the same time, the average land surface temperature (LST) increased by nearly 5–7 °C in the city and nearly 3–5 °C at the city boundary. For different LULC classes, the highest mean LST increase during 1988–2018 was 7.11 °C for IL with the lowest being 3.18 °C for VL although there were some fluctuations during this time period. While open land only occupies a small proportion of the landscape, it usually had higher mean LST than all other LULC classes. There was a negative relationship both between LST and Normal Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and LST and Normal Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), respectively, and a positive relationship between LST and Normal Difference Built-up Index (NDBI). The result of an urban–rural gradient analysis showed there was sharp decrease of mean LST from the city center outwards to about 15 kms because the NDVI also sharply increased, especially in 2008 and 2018, which clearly shows a surface urban heat island effect. Further from the city center, around 20–25 kms, mean LST increased due to increased agriculture activity. The population of Kathmandu Valley was 2.88 million in 2016 and if the growth trend continues then it is predicted to reach 3.85 million by 2035. Consequently, to avoid the critical effects of increasing SUHI in Kathmandu it is essential to improve urban planning including the implementation of green city technologies.


Author(s):  
M. H. Huang ◽  
J. J. Chen

Abstract. China has experienced rapid urbanization and rapid development of economy in the past decades, resulting in severe damage to the urban ecological environment, causing changes in the urban thermal environment and triggering the urban heat island effect. Moreover, the heat island effect has become a hot topic for scholars. The urban heat island effect refers to the phenomenon that the urban surface temperature is significantly higher than that of surrounding suburbs due to the interaction of man-made and natural. The city is considered to be the largest man-made ecosystem. Its heat island effect will not only change the growth habit of urban vegetation, but also affect the outer environment of urban buildings, it further influences human life and has a great negative impact on human health. Therefore, the study of the spatial-temporal variation characteristics of urban heat island effect and its influencing factors can provide data support for the environmental quality control and urban planning of local government departments. Based on the surface temperature remote sensing product data, we studied the spatial distribution characteristics of urban heat island effect in Wuhan from 2001 to 2013, by calculating the temperature difference between the highest and lowest temperatures and the average interval method for heat island classification. We conducted a trend analysis of vegetation cover from 2001 to 2013 initially explore the effects of vegetation cover n heat island effect. The results showed that: (1) From 2001 to 2013, the intensity of heat island in Wuhan was strong in the city center, weaker surrounding city center and the weakest in the suburbs; From 2001 to 2011, the intensity of heat island in Wuhan city was significantly weaken, among which Huangpi, Xinzhou, Jiangxia, Hannan and Caidian district were weaken, and the urban heat island effect of the city center was enhanced; From 2011 to 2013, the intensity of heat island in Wuhan city presented an increasing trend, among which Huangpi district, Xinzhou district and Caidian district were the most obvious, and the urban heat island effect was slightly weaken. (2) Between 2001 and 2013, the vegetation cover in Huangpi district and Xinzhou district increased significantly, and the vegetation cover in the downtown, Jiangxia district and Dongxihu district decreased significantly, corresponding to the urban heat island effect of Wuhan increased volatility. Our results showed that the spatial distribution of urban heat island effect in Wuhan city fluctuated with time during the study period, and the vegetation cover had a significant influence on it.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.2) ◽  
pp. 597
Author(s):  
Yuri Golik ◽  
Oksana Illiash ◽  
Nataliia Maksiuta

The concept of "heat-island effect", its structure and features of formation over the city are given. The climatic and other features of the city that influence the formation of this phenomenon are mentioned.  The data on functioning in the city of the municipal production enterprise of the heat economy is indicated. The traditional method for determining the formation of the urban "heat-island effect" is described. The data and comparative graphs on the temperature regimes of the city and region are presented. The possibility of influencing architectural features of the city on the formation of the "heat-island-effect" is determined. According to the obtained results, further integrated researches are proposed for obtaining reliable results of the given question. 


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shihan Chen ◽  
Yuanjian Yang ◽  
Fei Deng ◽  
Yanhao Zhang ◽  
Duanyang Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract. Due to rapid urbanization and intense human activities, the urban heat island (UHI) effect has become a more concerning climatic and environmental issue. A high spatial resolution canopy UHI monitoring method would help better understand the urban thermal environment. Taking the city of Nanjing in China as an example, we propose a method for evaluating canopy UHI intensity (CUHII) at high resolution by using remote sensing data and machine learning with a Random Forest (RF) model. Firstly, the observed environmental parameters [e.g., surface albedo, land use/land cover, impervious surface, and anthropogenic heat flux (AHF)] around densely distributed meteorological stations were extracted from satellite images. These parameters were used as independent variables to construct an RF model for predicting air temperature. The correlation coefficient between the predicted and observed air temperature in the test set was 0.73, and the average root-mean-square error was 0.72 °C. Then, the spatial distribution of CUHII was evaluated at 30-m resolution based on the output of the RF model. We found that wind speed was negatively correlated with CUHII, and wind direction was strongly correlated with the CUHII offset direction. The CUHII reduced with the distance to the city center, due to the de-creasing proportion of built-up areas and reduced AHF in the same direction. The RF model framework developed for real-time monitoring and assessment of high-resolution CUHII provides scientific support for studying the changes and causes of CUHII, as well as the spatial pattern of urban thermal environments.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 9617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesam M. Elbardisy ◽  
Mohamed A. Salheen ◽  
Mohammed Fahmy

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, studies focused on the relationship between urban planning practice and climatology are still lacking, despite the fact that the latter has nearly three decades of literature in the region and the former has much more. However, such an unfounded relationship that would consider urban sustainability measures is a serious challenge, especially considering the effects of climate change. The Greater Cairo Region (GCR) has recently witnessed numerous serious urban vehicular network re-development, leaving the city less green and in need of strategically re-thinking the plan regarding, and the role of, green infrastructure. Therefore, this study focuses on approaches to the optimization of the urban green infrastructure, in order to reduce solar irradiance in the city and, thus, its effects on the urban climatology. This is carried out by studying one of the East Cairo neighborhoods, named El-Nozha district, as a representative case of the most impacted neighborhoods. In an attempt to quantify these effects, using parametric simulation, the Air Temperature (Ta), Mean Radiant Temperature (Tmrt), Relative Humidity (RH), and Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) parameters were calculated before and after introducing urban trees, acting as green infrastructure types that mitigate climate change and the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Our results indicate that an optimized percentage, spacing, location, and arrangement of urban tree canopies can reduce the irradiance flux at the ground surface, having positive implications in terms of mitigating the urban heat island effect.


Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guglielmina Mutani ◽  
Valeria Todeschi

There is growing attention to the use of greenery in urban areas, in various forms and functions, as an instrument to reduce the impact of human activities on the urban environment. The aim of this study has been to investigate the use of green roofs as a strategy to reduce the urban heat island effect and to improve the thermal comfort of indoor and outdoor environments. The effects of the built-up environment, the presence of vegetation and green roofs, and the urban morphology of the city of Turin (Italy) have been assessed considering the land surface temperature distribution. This analysis has considered all the information recorded by the local weather stations and satellite images, and compares it with the geometrical and typological characteristics of the city in order to find correlations that confirm that greenery and vegetation improve the livability of an urban context. The results demonstrate that the land-surface temperature, and therefore the air temperature, tend to decrease as the green areas increase. This trend depends on the type of urban context. Based on the results of a green-roofs investigation of Turin, the existing and potential green roofs are respectively almost 300 (257,380 m2) and 15,450 (6,787,929 m2). Based on potential assessment, a strategy of priority was established according to the characteristics of building, to the presence of empty spaces, and to the identification of critical areas, in which the thermal comfort conditions are poor with low vegetation. This approach can be useful to help stakeholders, urban planners, and policy makers to effectively mitigate the urban heat island (UHI), improve the livability of the city, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and gain thermal comfort conditions, and to identify policies and incentives to promote green roofs.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrei-Emil Briciu ◽  
Dumitru Mihăilă ◽  
Adrian Graur ◽  
Dinu Iulian Oprea ◽  
Alin Prisăcariu ◽  
...  

Cities alter the thermal regime of urban rivers in very variable ways which are not yet deciphered for the territory of Romania. The urban heat island of Suceava city was measured in 2019 and its impact on Suceava River was assessed using hourly and daily values from a network of 12 water and air monitoring stations. In 2019, Suceava River water temperature was 11.54 °C upstream of Suceava city (Mihoveni) and 11.97 °C downstream (Tişăuţi)—a 3.7% increase in the water temperature downstream. After the stream water passes through the city, the diurnal thermal profile of Suceava River water temperature shows steeper slopes and earlier moments of the maximum and minimum temperatures than upstream because of the urban heat island. In an average day, an increase of water temperature with a maximum of 0.99 °C occurred downstream, partly explained by the 2.46 °C corresponding difference between the urban floodplain and the surrounding area. The stream water diurnal cycle has been shifted towards a variation specific to that of the local air temperature. The heat exchange between Suceava River and Suceava city is bidirectional. The stream water diurnal thermal cycle is statistically more significant downstream due to the heat transfer from the city into the river. This transfer occurs partly through urban tributaries which are 1.94 °C warmer than Suceava River upstream of Suceava city. The wavelet coherence analyses and ANCOVA (analysis of covariance) prove that there are significant (0.95 confidence level) causal relationships between the changes in Suceava River water temperature downstream and the fluctuations of the urban air temperature. The complex bidirectional heat transfer and the changes in the diurnal thermal profiles are important to be analysed in other urban systems in order to decipher in more detail the observed causal relationships.


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