Detect relationship between urban housing development and urban heat island dynamic in hyper-density Hong Kong by integrating GIS and RS techniques

Abstract

Urbanization and aging of society are two converging trends of current demographic changes. The intensified human activities associate with the formation and dynamic of Urban Heat Island (UHI) which is harmful to health. Looking into the correlation between UHI effect and the land surface coverage of everyday spaces is curtail and significant. Aided by spatial analysis and spatial statistic functions based on Geographical Information System (GIS) and data extraction and processing methods enabled by the Remote Sensing (RS) platform, this paper detected the distribution of land surface temperature and traced its changes alongside dynamics of land surface coverage in the selected typical areas of Hong Kong. Findings of this paper will be significant for Hong Kong planners, architects and housing officials to consider when deciding on the next step of Hong Kong urban planning and housing development.