Estimation of the Relationship between Urban Park Characteristics and Park Cool Island Intensity by Remote Sensing Data and Field Measurement

Abstract

The cooling effects of urban parks, which form “Park Cool Island” (PCI), can help decrease land surface temperature (LST) and mitigate urban heat island (UHI) effects. PCI intensity largely depends on the characteristics of urban parks. The relationship between PCI intensity and urban park characteristics such as urban park size has been well documented. However, it is still unclear how urban forest structures in parks affect PCI intensity and particularly whether the relationship changes across seasons. In this study, PCI intensity for 33 parks in Changchun, China was obtained from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data and then correlated with urban park characteristics such as the size derived from “Systeme Probatoire d’Observation dela Tarre” (SPOT) satellite data and the forest structures of parks derived from the field-based survey to uncover the relationship between urban park characteristics and PCI intensity. Our results suggested that (1) The PCI intensity varied across seasons and the cooling effect of parks in summer was higher than that in autumn. (2) The increase of urban park size was still an effective measure to mitigate UHI. However, urban park size was non-linearly correlated to PCI intensity. (3) Not only by increasing urban park size, but also by optimizing urban park shape and forest structures in parks can increase PCI intensity. (4) The relationship between PCI intensity and urban park characteristics changed across seasons and seasons should be considered when exploring the relationship between them. These findings can deepen the understanding of PCI formation and provide useful information for urban planners about how to design urban parks to maximize their PCI intensity and mitigate UHI effects

Eco-evolutionary dynamics in urbanized landscapes: evolution, species sorting and the change in zooplankton body size along urbanization gradients

“…The decrease in community body size was only significant for built-up area assessed in the immediate surroundings of the pond (50-200 m radius). This most likely reflects built-up area in the immediate vicinity of the pond being the best predictor of extreme temperatures, while parks and large gardens in the cities experience somewhat cooler temperatures [48][49][50]. We, however, found that cladoceran communities characterized by a relatively high relative abundance (more than 5%) of large-bodied species displayed a different pattern.…”

Urbanization Drives SOC Accumulation, Its Temperature Stability and Turnover in Forests, Northeastern China

“…Covering approximately 524 km 2 (within the beltway) (Figure 1), Changchun had 3.659 million inhabitants at the end of 2014 (Changchun Statistical Bureau data). The climate is temperate humid or sub-humid continental monsoon, the mean annual precipitation is 567 mm, and the mean air temperature is 4.8 • C [26]. Dominant soil types are black soil, dark-brown soil, and chernozem [27].…”

Optimizing green space locations to reduce daytime and nighttime urban heat island effects in Phoenix, Arizona

“…LST shows significant correlation with air temperature and provides complete spatial coverage across an entire cityscape Klok, Zwart, Verhagen, & Mauri, 2012;. Extensive research has explored relationships between SUHI and urban land cover, especially with regard to vegetation (Buyantuyev & Wu, 2010;Li, Li, Middel, Harlan, & Brazel, 2016;Myint, Wentz, Brazel, & Quattrochi, 2013;Ren et al, 2013;Weng 2009;. Studies have suggested that land cover composition and configuration of the green space are strong predictors of its cooling effect (Cao, Onishi, Chen, & Imura, 2010;Li et al, 2013;Lin, Yu, Chang, Wu, & Zhang, 2015;Maimaitiyiming et al, 2014;Ren et al, 2013Ren et al, 2013.…”