Assessing the surface urban heat island effect in Xining, China

Abstract

This study focuses on using remotely sensed land surface temperature (LST) to assess the surface urban heat island effect (SUHI) in Xining, Qinghai. Cloud-freeLandsat TM data acquired on 30 June 2002 and 17 July 2009 were selected to generate LSTmaps. Analysis of the SUHI characteristics from these two images reveals that1) there was a mean LST growth in magnitude of 0.63 °C, or 2.09%. 2) The center of Xining did not exhibit the highest LST. But apart from the arid and semi-arid areas, the spatial pattern of the SUHI shows that higher temperatures in urban than in rural areas.3) The strong negative correlations were found between LST and NDVI. Based on the findings, potential design strategies are proposed in an effort to mitigate SUHI effect. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.