Exploring the cooling effect of urban parks based on the ECOSTRESS land surface temperature

Abstract

Understanding the cooling effect (CE) of urban parks is vital to mitigate the urban heat islands. ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) land surface temperature data (LST) data were used to construct diurnal thermal variations to explore the CE of urban parks in the fifth ring regions of Beijing. Local climate zone (LCZ) classification was used to distinguish different parks for examining the internal CE of parks. New subclasses of LCZ (e.g., LCZAG, LCZBG, LCZCG) were created based on the basic subclasses, such as LCZA (mainly consist of dense trees), LCZB (scattered tress with dense bush), LCZC (scattered bush), and LCZG (water). The external CE of parks was evaluated in different directions, and the impacts of buildings around parks on the external CE were also analyzed. The results showed that urban parks tended to heat up slower than the whole urban regions during the daytime, and water releasing energy dominated the mean LST of parks at night. Large parks meeting the minimum area (40,000 m2) of LCZ had better CE inside each park during the daytime. Three hundred thirty four large parks were divided into six types of LCZ. The strength of the CE decrease with the increases of distance, and seemed to exist at a distance of up to 150–200 m. Such impacts of parks were insignificant at night. In addition, parks containing certain dense trees and water had better CE inside and out. The height and density of buildings had a relatively obvious impact on the CE of parks. This study can provide insight into the impacts of urban parks on the urban thermal environment and promote the CE of urban parks in future urban planning.

Effective Factors for Reducing Land Surface Temperature in Each Local Climate Zone Built Type in Tokyo and Shanghai

“…It is also the most well-known strategy for urban residents to improve the conditions in the urban thermal environment [50]. Diverse urban greening strategies span from incorporating parks, green urban spaces, and street trees to incorporation below green such as shrubs, grasses, and yards [22,53,54]. Surface materials contribute to the reduction of LST by using innovative materials such as retroreflective materials, and super cool materials that alter the albedo, heat capacity, or emissivity of urban surfaces [3,55].…”

Cooling island effect in urban parks from the perspective of internal park landscape

“…First, the data used were limited in their temporal and spatial resolution, so the results of the study are only able to reflect the PCEs at the moment of satellite collection. In future research, higher resolution and more comprehensive time-series methods should be used to study the PCEs in-depth, such as unmanned aerial vehicle remote sensing, ECOSTRESS (Liu et al, 2022), and microclimate modeling (Wu et al, 2016). Second, the influencing factors explored in this study were limited; more indepth factors such as humidity (Yan et al, 2023), 3D urban landscape patterns (Han et al, 2023), and landscape connectivity should be investigated.…”

Urban Land Surface Temperature Downscaling in Chicago: Addressing Ethnic Inequality and Gentrification

“…ECOSTRESS, mounted on the International Space Station (ISS), has the potential to address this by revisiting locations irregularly, offering Remote Sens. 2024, 16, 1639 2 of 16 insights into the diurnal characteristics of LST while maintaining the high spatial resolution of 70 m. Although it cannot provide continuous estimates and has long return periods, it has been widely utilized for LST analysis [19][20][21][22][23]. For example, it has been utilized for analyzing the diurnal dynamics of surface urban heat island [24], impact of urban landscapes on LST [25], and various factors affecting LST [26].…”