Anthropogenic heat flux estimation from space: results of the first phase of the URBANFLUXES project

Abstract

H2020-Space project URBANFLUXES (URBan ANthrpogenic heat FLUX from Earth observation Satellites)investigates the potential of Copernicus Sentinels to retrieve anthropogenic heat flux, as a key component of the Urban Energy Budget (UEB). URBANFLUXES advances the current knowledge of the impacts of UEB fluxes on urban heat island and consequently on energy consumption in cities. This will lead to the development of tools and strategies to mitigate these effects, improving thermal comfort and energy efficiency. In URBANFLUXES, the anthropogenic heat flux is estimated as a residual of UEB. Therefore, the rest UEB components, namely, the net all-wave radiation, the net change in heat storage and the turbulent sensible and latent heat fluxes are independently estimated from Earth Observation (EO), whereas the advection term is included in the error of the anthropogenic heat flux estimation from the UEB closure. The project exploits Sentinels observations, which provide improved data quality, coverage and revisit times and increase the value of EO data for scientific work and future emerging applications. These observations can reveal novel scientific insights for the detection and monitoring of the spatial distribution of the urban energy budget fluxes in cities, thereby generating new EO opportunities. URBANFLUXES thus exploits the European capacity for space-borne observations to enable the development of operational services in the field of urban environmental monitoring and energy efficiency in cities.

Online Global Land Surface Temperature Estimation from Landsat

“…Landsat-derived LST is widely used for urban temperature studies and particularly for the study of the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon [11][12][13]. Recently, LST data from Landsat were used for urban energy flux estimation [3]. Landsat-derived LST is also used for monitoring the forested areas, such as the correlation of LST with tree loss or the detection of changes in tropical forest cover [14,15].…”

“…Land surface temperature (LST) is an important parameter for environmental studies and enables the monitoring of landscape processes and responses [1], such as the surface energy and water balance [2][3][4][5][6][7]. In order to better observe the changes, in climate for example, there is a need for frequent data acquisition to obtain consistent LST time series [8].…”

Spatial Distribution of Sensible and Latent Heat Flux in the City of Basel (Switzerland)

“…Each component of the urban energy balance after [1] R n + Q F = Q H + Q E + ΔQ S + ΔQ A (1) with the net radiation R n , the sensible (Q H ) and latent (Q E ) heat flux, the storage heat flux ΔQ S , and the anthropogenic heat flux Q F being evaluated in a separate work package [2] and the net advection ΔQ A is assumed to be zero. This study concentrates on the fluxes of sensible and latent heat, which are strongly modified by the properties of the urban surface, i.e., three-dimensional (3-D) geometry, high roughness, impervious surfaces, complex source/sink distribution, and injections of heat and water into the urban atmosphere by human activities (traffic, heating, waste management, etc.…”

Validation of Pleiades Tri-Stereo DSM in Urban Areas

“…Satellite remote sensing (optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR)) and airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technologies have been exploited for their capabilities on the production of large area high resolution DSM applied in urban studies [1][2][3][4][5], hydrological modelling [6], and natural hazards [7][8][9]. Both technologies have their limitations and advantages [6] as open access datasets did not provide the required detailed information for studies at local scales [10].…”