Spatial Analysis of the Urban Heat Island Using a 3-D City Model

Abstract

There is no doubt that the urban heat island (UHI) is a mounting problem in built-up environments, due to energy retention by the surface materials of dense buildings, leading to increased temperatures, air pollution, and energy consumption. To investigate the UHI, three-dimensional (3-D) information is necessary to analyze complex sites, including dense building clusters. In this research, 3-D building geometry information is combined with two-dimensional (2-D) urban surface information to examine the relationship between urban characteristics and temperature. In addition, this research introduces spatial regression models to account for the spatial spillover effects of urban temperatures, and includes the following steps: (a) estimating urban temperatures, (b) developing a 3-D city model, (c) generating urban parameters, and (d) conducting statistical analyses using both Ordinary Least-Squares (OLS) and Spatial Regression Models. The results demonstrate that 3-D urban characteristics greatly affect temperatures and that neighborhood effects are critical in explaining temperature variations. Finally, the implications of the results are discussed, providing guidelines for policies to reduce the UHI. PU - Korea Spatial Information Society (KSIS)