Structure of Urban Landscape and Surface Temperature: a Case Study in Philadelphia, PA

Abstract

Discerning the relationship between urban structure and function is crucial for sustainable city planning and requires examination of how components in urban systems are organized in three-dimensional space. The Structure of Urban Landscape (STURLA) classification accounts for the compositional complexity of urban landcover structures including the built and natural environment. Building on previous research, we develop a STURLA classification for Philadelphia, PA and study the relationship between urban structure and land surface temperature. We evaluate the results in Philadelphia as compared to previous case studies in Berlin, Germany and New York City, United States. In Philadelphia, STURLA classes hosted ST that were unique and significantly different as compared to all other classes. We find a similar distribution of STURLA class composition across the three cities, though NYC and Berlin showed strong correlation with each other but not with Philadelphia. Our research highlights the use of STURLA classification to capture a physical property of the urban landscape

Predicting citywide distribution of air pollution using mobile monitoring and three-dimensional urban structure

“…STURLA does so by using land cover and building height data to identify common compositions of urban environments that are meaningful for scientists and urban planners (Hamstead et al, 2016). STURLA studies have linked urban landscape structure and land surface temperature (Hamstead et al, 2016;Kremer et al, 2018;Larondelle et al, 2014;Mitz et al, 2020), as well as the phylogenetic diversity of the atmospheric microbiome . STURLA allows for classifications of urban structure, that have the potential to reshape our understanding of how the composition and spatial organization of urban environments influence environmental parameters.…”