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[MZZ49-02] Effect of urbanization and vegetation on urban heat island intensity
The two types of grid data were spatially combined to clarify the relationship with the distance from the city center. As an example, the analysis result of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, is shown. Here, we used each satellite image data of summer (June to August).
A negative correlation was found between the vegetation fraction and the surface temperature. The result suggests that the surface temperature tended to be lower in the fraction with more vegetation. In this study, we also simulated: a fully urban scenario (0% covered by vegetation), a scenario weighted by the fraction of the vegetation, and a fully vegetated scenario (100% covered by vegetation). The weighted scenario was affected by the vegetation fraction, and the farther away from the urban center, the lower the surface temperature became. The fully vegetation scenario showed a similar trend; the farther away from the urban center, the lower the surface temperature became except for points within 5 km of the center. On the other hand, the fully urban scenario was always maintained at a high value regardless of the distance from the urban center. These results indicate that vegetation in the urban environment plays an important role in regulating the surface temperature.
Reference
Impact of urbanization on US surface climate (2015)
Lahouari Bounoua, Ping Zhang, Georgy Mostovoy, Kurtis Thome1, Jeffrey Masek1, Marc Imhoff, Marshall Shepherd, Dale Quattrochi, Joseph Santanello, Julie Silva
Environmental Research Letters, Volume 10, Number 8