Long-Term Spatiotemporal Patterns and Evolution of Regional Heat Islands in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Urban Agglomeration

Abstract

With the continuous development of urbanization, the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon is becoming increasingly prominent. Especially with the development of various large urban agglomerations and the shrinking distance between cities, the regional thermal environment has attracted extensive attention. Therefore, we used Modis land surface temperature (LST) data and employed least squares, standard deviation and spatial autocorrelation analysis methods to analyze the spatiotemporal patterns and characteristics of summer daytime regional urban heat islands (RHI) in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration. Our results indicated that the relative land surface temperature (RLST) in the southeastern part of BTH with a relatively high level of urbanization showed a significant and continuous upward trend. With the continuous development of the level of urbanization in the southeast, the center of gravity (GC) of RHI gradually moved to the southeast, and the development direction of RHI changed from northwest–southeast to northeast–southwest. The area transfer of RHI was concentrated in no change and little change, indicating that the evolution trend of RHI was relatively stable. The high-high aggregation areas were mainly located in the more developed areas in the southeast. In addition, the methods and results of this study can provide reasonable and effective insights into the future development and planning of the BTH.

Satellite-Derived Land Surface Temperature Dynamics in the Context of Global Change—A Review

“…The only way to measure and quantify the UHI with remote sensing data is through the Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) effect, which is the difference between the LST over urban areas relative to neighboring nonurban areas [2]. In most cases, this difference is positive, which was also reflected in our reviewed studies [64,66,67,[81][82][83]85,93,98,102,110,124,128,129,133,137]. However, in arid climates, where the non-urban environment is not covered by vegetation, it can also be negative [75,76,132,139], which is referred to as an urban heat sink.…”

Spatial and Temporal Variation of Urban Heat Islands in French Guiana

“…Additionally, patches with only the nighttime SUHI phenomenon could also be the result of heat island transfer facilitated by wind. According to [ 6 ], it is possible for non-heat island areas to be converted to heat island areas and low-grade SUHI to be converted to high-grade SUHI.…”

“…In the process of urbanization, natural and semi-natural surfaces, such as vegetation cover, natural ponds, and raw lands, are replaced by impervious surfaces like buildings, pavements, and roads [ 4 , 5 ]. These changes disturb the albedo and the energy balance and alter the thermal properties of urban areas [ 6 ], leading to the phenomenon referred to as a surface urban heat island (SUHI).…”

“…The SUHI is a phenomenon whereby temperatures in urban areas are significantly higher than those of surrounding rural and natural areas [ 7 , 8 ]. It is, for example, estimated that between 2003 and 2005, the average daily temperature in summer in urban areas of more than 500 km 2 rose by 4.7 °C [ 6 ]. Another study conducted in the South of Brazil found the difference in surface temperature between the urbanized core and the urban edge in the summer of the city of Rio de Janeiro to be up to 10 °C [ 9 ].…”

“…The SUHI can also increase energy Sensors 2024, 24,1931 2 of 24 and water consumption [14,15]. As a result, the SUHI phenomenon has gained the attention of researchers, and an increasing number of related studies have been conducted in various cities across the world [6].…”