Impact of urban form on land surface temperature (LST) based seasonal characteristics: Empirical study from Nanjing

Abstract

A good urban thermal environment is of great importance to the quality of human settlements and the sustainable development of cities. However, with the development of urbanization, the change of urban form such as the increase of impermeable area caused the increase of LST. This study will take the 11 districts of Nanjing as study area to evaluate the influence of urban form on LST from three dimensions: land use, landscape index and traffic accessibility. The study found that there was a significant positive correlation between road network density (RND) and LST7 (land surface temperature in July) (1% significance level). Following that, there were patch density (PD) (5%), patch cohesion index (COHESION) (5%) and PVA (10%), all of which were negatively correlated with LST7. However, the regression fitting degree of LST1 (land surface temperature in January) and urban form index was only about 2%. Besides, different regions are affected by urban form indexes in varying degree. The study provides scientific implications for relieving surface temperature and improving thermal environment in Nanjing city.