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Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Urban Heat Island and Their Relationship with Land Cover Changes in Urbanization Process: A Case Study in Suzhou, China

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Abstract

One of the significant environmental consequences of urbanization is the urban heat island (UHI). In this paper, Landsat TM images of 1986 and 2004 were utilized to study the spatial and temporal variations of heat island and their relationships with land cover changes in Suzhou, a Chinese city which experienced rapid urbanization in past decades. Land cover classifications were derived to quantify urban expansions and brightness temperatures were computed from the TM thermal data to express the urban thermal environment. The spatial distributions of surface temperature indicated that heat islands had been largely broadened and showed good agreements with urban expansion. Temperature statistics of main land cover types showed that built-up and bare land had higher surface temperatures than natural land covers, implying the warming effect caused by the urbanization with natural landscape being replaced by urban areas. In addition, the spatial detail distributions of surface temperature were compared with the distribution of land cover by means of GIS buffer analysis. Results show remarkable show good correspondence between heat island variations with urban area expansions.

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Acknowledgement

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 40801040, 40901239), Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (Grant Number: 2010CB428505).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Remote Sensing, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, 219, Ningliu Road, 210044, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

    Yongming Xu

  2. International Institute of Earth System Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Yongming Xu, Zhihao Qin & Hongxiu Wan

  3. Institute of Natural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Zhihao Qin

  4. Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Hongxiu Wan

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  1. Yongming Xu
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  2. Zhihao Qin
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  3. Hongxiu Wan
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Correspondence to Yongming Xu.

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Xu, Y., Qin, Z. & Wan, H. Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Urban Heat Island and Their Relationship with Land Cover Changes in Urbanization Process: A Case Study in Suzhou, China. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 38, 654–663 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-011-0073-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-011-0073-7

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