Urban Morphological Controls on Surface Thermal Dynamics: A Comparative Assessment of Major European Cities with a Focus on Athens, Greece

Climate

Mat Santamouris¹  Ilias Agathangelidis²  Constantinos Cartalis² 

[1] Anita Lawrence Chair High Performance Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2033, Australia;Department of Physics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15784 Athens, Greece;

关键词: urban heat island;    urban form;    local climate zones;    land surface temperature;    building height;    building density;   

DOI  :  10.3390/cli8110131

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Variations in urban form lead to the development of distinctive intra-urban surface thermal patterns. Previous assessment of the relation between urban structure and satellite-based Land Surface Temperature (LST) has generally been limited to single-city cases. Here, examining 25 European cities (June–August 2017), we estimated the statistical association between surface parameters—the impervious fraction (λ_imp), the building fraction (λ_b), and the building height (H)—and the neighborhood scale (1000 × 1000 m) LST variations, as captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor. Correlation analysis, multiple linear regression, and spatial regression were used. As expected, λ_imp had a consistent positive influence on LSTs. In contrast, the relation of LST with λ_b and H was generally weaker or negative in the daytime, whereas at night it shifted to a robust positive effect. In particular, daytime LSTs of densely built, high-rise European districts tended to have lower values. This was especially the case for the city of Athens, Greece, where a more focused analysis was conducted, using further surface parameters and the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) scheme. For the urban core of the city, the canyon aspect ratio H/W had a statistically significant (p <0.01) negative relationship with LST by day (Spearman’s rho = −0.68) and positive during nighttime (rho = 0.45). The prevailing intra-urban surface thermal variability in Athens was well reproduced by a 5-day numerical experiment using the meteorological Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) model and a modified urban parameterization scheme. Although the simulation resulted in some systematic errors, the overall accuracy of the model was adequate, regarding the surface temperature (RMSE = 2.4 K) and the near-surface air temperature (RMSE = 1.7 K) estimations.

【 授权许可】

Unknown