The Effect of Urban Heat Island on Climate Warming in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration in China

Abstract

The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) has experienced rapid urbanization and dramatic economic development since 1978 and the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA) has been one of the three largest urban agglomerations in China. We present evidence of a significant urban heat island (UHI) effect on climate warming based on an analysis of the impacts of the urbanization rate, urban population, and land use changes on the warming rate of the daily average, minimal (nighttime) and maximal (daytime) air temperature in the YRDUA using 41 meteorological stations observation data. The effect of the UHI on climate warming shows a large spatial variability. The average warming rates of average air temperature of huge cities, megalopolises, large cities, medium-sized cities, and small cities are 0.483, 0.314 ± 0.030, 0.282 ± 0.042, 0.225 ± 0.044 and 0.179 ± 0.046 °C/decade during the period of 1957–2013, respectively. The average warming rates of huge cities and megalopolises are significantly higher than those of medium-sized cities and small cities, indicating that the UHI has a significant effect on climate warming (t-test, p < 0.05). Significantly positive correlations are found between the urbanization rate, population, built-up area and warming rate of average air temperature (p < 0.001). The average warming rate of average air temperature attributable to urbanization is 0.124 ± 0.074 °C/decade in the YRDUA. Urbanization has a measurable effect on the observed climate warming in the YRD aggravating the global climate warming.

Contribution of urbanization to the increase of extreme heat events in an urban agglomeration in east China

“…The unprecedented urbanization in the last three decades has resulted in remarkable changes captured by the spatial distributions of NTL from 1978 to 2013 (Figure 1). Concurrent with the rapid urbanization is the enhanced UHI effect which obviously contributed to the overall warming trends in YRD [Huang and Lu, 2015]. In 1978, rural stations accounted for 94.4% of the total number of stations, but they only accounted for 41.4% in 2013 ( Figure S4).…”

“…This region has experienced rapid economic development and significant growth in its urban population and urbanized areas since the late 1970s [Gao et al, 2012;Z. With rapid urban growth, the UHI effect has strongly intensified [Du et al, 2007;Xie et al, 2010;Huang and Lu, 2015]. With rapid urban growth, the UHI effect has strongly intensified [Du et al, 2007;Xie et al, 2010;Huang and Lu, 2015].…”

Modeling the Impacts of Urbanization on Summer Thermal Comfort: The Role of Urban Land Use and Anthropogenic Heat

“…Since the adoption of economic reform and open‐up policy of China in 1978, YRD has experienced rapid growth in its urban population and urbanized areas (Zhu et al, ). Concurrent with rapid urban development, the UHI effect has strongly intensified in YRD in the past two decades (Du et al, ; Huang & Lu, ; Xie et al, ; Yang et al, ). The YRD has a subtropical monsoon climate with hot and humid summers.…”

Spatial Zoning Strategy of Urbanization Based on Urban Climate Co-Movement: A Case Study in Shanghai Mainland Area

“…The growth rate of the utmost highest air temperature in Shanghai was 0.433 °C for each 10 years, which far exceeded the temperature of the surrounding area [22,23]. There are three distribution centers of urban heat island in Shanghai, that is, the main center of UHI (Urban Heat Island) in the downtown area, and the two sub-centers of UHI in the north section of Minhang district and the south section of the Songjiang district.…”