Greenspace Pattern and the Surface Urban Heat Island: A Biophysically-Based Approach to Investigating the Effects of Urban Landscape Configuration

Surface urban heat islands (SUHIs) are influenced by the spatial distribution of green space, which in turn can be influenced by urban planning. When studying the relationship between structure and function it is critical that the scale of observation reflects the scale of the phenomenon being measu...

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Main Authors: Elizabeth Jane Wesley, Nathaniel A. Brunsell
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-10-01
Series:Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/11/19/2322
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spelling doaj-62f127f732d24e538d3d631829f5f0a42020-11-25T02:50:06ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922019-10-011119232210.3390/rs11192322rs11192322Greenspace Pattern and the Surface Urban Heat Island: A Biophysically-Based Approach to Investigating the Effects of Urban Landscape ConfigurationElizabeth Jane Wesley0Nathaniel A. Brunsell1Department of Geography & Atmospheric Science, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USADepartment of Geography & Atmospheric Science, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USASurface urban heat islands (SUHIs) are influenced by the spatial distribution of green space, which in turn can be influenced by urban planning. When studying the relationship between structure and function it is critical that the scale of observation reflects the scale of the phenomenon being measured. To investigate the relationship between green space pattern and the SUHI in the Kansas City metropolitan area, we conducted a multi-resolution wavelet analysis of land surface temperature (LST) to determine the dominant length scales of LST production. We used these scales as extents for calculating landscape metrics on a high-resolution land cover map. We built regression models to investigate whether−controlling for the percent vegetated area−patch size, fragmentation, shape, complexity, and/or proximity can mitigate SUHIs. We found that while some of the relationships between landscape metrics and LST are significant, their explanatory power would be of little use in planning for green infrastructure. We also found that the relationships often reported between landscape metrics and LST are artifacts of the relationship between the percent of vegetation and LST. By using the dominant length scales of LST we provide a methodology for robust biophysically-based analysis of urban landscape pattern and demonstrate that the contributions of green space configuration to the SUHI are negligible. The simple result that increasing green space can lower LST regardless of configuration allows the prioritization of resources towards benefiting neighborhoods most vulnerable to the negative impacts of urban heat.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/11/19/2322surface urban heat islandgreen space patterndominant length scalewavelet decompositionlandscape metricsscaling effects
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Elizabeth Jane Wesley
Nathaniel A. Brunsell
spellingShingle Elizabeth Jane Wesley
Nathaniel A. Brunsell
Greenspace Pattern and the Surface Urban Heat Island: A Biophysically-Based Approach to Investigating the Effects of Urban Landscape Configuration
Remote Sensing
surface urban heat island
green space pattern
dominant length scale
wavelet decomposition
landscape metrics
scaling effects
author_facet Elizabeth Jane Wesley
Nathaniel A. Brunsell
author_sort Elizabeth Jane Wesley
title Greenspace Pattern and the Surface Urban Heat Island: A Biophysically-Based Approach to Investigating the Effects of Urban Landscape Configuration
title_short Greenspace Pattern and the Surface Urban Heat Island: A Biophysically-Based Approach to Investigating the Effects of Urban Landscape Configuration
title_full Greenspace Pattern and the Surface Urban Heat Island: A Biophysically-Based Approach to Investigating the Effects of Urban Landscape Configuration
title_fullStr Greenspace Pattern and the Surface Urban Heat Island: A Biophysically-Based Approach to Investigating the Effects of Urban Landscape Configuration
title_full_unstemmed Greenspace Pattern and the Surface Urban Heat Island: A Biophysically-Based Approach to Investigating the Effects of Urban Landscape Configuration
title_sort greenspace pattern and the surface urban heat island: a biophysically-based approach to investigating the effects of urban landscape configuration
publisher MDPI AG
series Remote Sensing
issn 2072-4292
publishDate 2019-10-01
description Surface urban heat islands (SUHIs) are influenced by the spatial distribution of green space, which in turn can be influenced by urban planning. When studying the relationship between structure and function it is critical that the scale of observation reflects the scale of the phenomenon being measured. To investigate the relationship between green space pattern and the SUHI in the Kansas City metropolitan area, we conducted a multi-resolution wavelet analysis of land surface temperature (LST) to determine the dominant length scales of LST production. We used these scales as extents for calculating landscape metrics on a high-resolution land cover map. We built regression models to investigate whether−controlling for the percent vegetated area−patch size, fragmentation, shape, complexity, and/or proximity can mitigate SUHIs. We found that while some of the relationships between landscape metrics and LST are significant, their explanatory power would be of little use in planning for green infrastructure. We also found that the relationships often reported between landscape metrics and LST are artifacts of the relationship between the percent of vegetation and LST. By using the dominant length scales of LST we provide a methodology for robust biophysically-based analysis of urban landscape pattern and demonstrate that the contributions of green space configuration to the SUHI are negligible. The simple result that increasing green space can lower LST regardless of configuration allows the prioritization of resources towards benefiting neighborhoods most vulnerable to the negative impacts of urban heat.
topic surface urban heat island
green space pattern
dominant length scale
wavelet decomposition
landscape metrics
scaling effects
url https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/11/19/2322
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