Influence of Urbanization-Related Radical Land Modification on Urban Extreme Climate: 2nd Edition

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land–Climate Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 8 September 2025 | Viewed by 790

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Guest Editor
1. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
2. National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: monitoring and detection of climate change; extreme climate change; observation; urban climate change; climatology
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Guest Editor
School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (NUIST), Nanjing 210044, China
Interests: severe weather, in particular extreme rainfall and intense convection; field experiments; numerical weather prediction

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The influences of urbanization on extremely high temperatures and short-duration intense precipitation have recently attracted a growing number of studies, especially from the rapidly developing regions of the world. However, there are still many scientific questions that need to be answered. For example, it is necessary to determine whether or not there is a clear-cut urban signal in the sense of climatological means and long-term trends when considering extreme temperatures and intense precipitation. If there is, what are the spatial and temporal patterns of the effects of urbanization, and what are the major drivers and mechanisms of the changes in climate extremes? What is the significance of changes in climate extremes at urban meteorological stations in large-scale climate change studies and for adapting to climate change in cities? How well can the state-of-the-art weather and climate models represent the dynamic and thermodynamic effects induced by cities and simulate extreme climate in and around cities?

To address the issues raised above, long-term observational data from meteorological stations that are located around cities and high-resolution numerical simulations are of great value. Moreover, large-scale land use and cover changes (such as those observed over the North China Plain and the Indo-Gangetic Plain) may also have an influence on extreme climate events, although the observation-based evidence is less sufficient compared to the more localized effect of urbanization.

Since the release of the previous Special Issue titled "Influence of Urbanization-Related Radical Land Modification on Urban Extreme Climate", it has received active attention from researchers in the field. Therefore, we are introducing the second volume, which aims to facilitate further research and discussions on urbanization's impact on extreme climate events. The extreme climate events include, but are not limited to, high and low temperatures, intense precipitation, high winds, and hail in urban and suburban areas. The effects of urbanization are not confined to the spatial patterns of extreme climate events in urban areas or in the surrounding rural areas. They also include the temporal changes in historical observation data series at and around the urban sites, including at the meteorological stations that are commonly used in the monitoring and study of climate change.

We invite manuscripts from a range of disciplines (including atmospheric science, urban climatology, geography, hydrology, urban science, climate change science, boundary meteorology, and remote sensing) that use a variety of methods. Interdisciplinary papers, review articles, studies conducted in rapidly developing countries and regions, and studies utilizing numerical simulations to unravel the physical mechanisms governing the urbanization-related influences on urban extreme climate are particularly welcome.

Prof. Dr. Guoyu Ren
Prof. Dr. Yali Luo
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • land use
  • land cover
  • LULC change
  • urbanization effect
  • urban area
  • extreme climate
  • climate change
  • observation
  • simulation

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 1989 KiB  
Article
Impacts of Spatial Expansion of Urban and Rural Construction on Typhoon-Directed Economic Losses: Should Land Use Data Be Included in the Assessment?
by Siyi Zhou, Zikai Zhao, Jiayue Hu, Fengbao Liu and Kunyuan Zheng
Land 2025, 14(5), 924; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14050924 - 24 Apr 2025
Viewed by 135
Abstract
With the intensification of global climate change, the frequent occurrence of typhoon disaster events has become a great challenge to the sustainable development of cities around the world; thus, it is of great significance to carry out the assessment of typhoon-directed economic losses. [...] Read more.
With the intensification of global climate change, the frequent occurrence of typhoon disaster events has become a great challenge to the sustainable development of cities around the world; thus, it is of great significance to carry out the assessment of typhoon-directed economic losses. Typhoon disaster loss assessment faces key challenges, including complex regional environments, scarce historical data, difficulties in multi-source heterogeneous data fusion, and challenges in quantifying assessment uncertainties. Meanwhile, existing studies often overlook the complex relationship between the spatial expansion of urban and rural construction (SEURC) and typhoon disaster losses, particularly their differential manifestations across different regions and disaster intensities. To address these issues, this study proposes CLPFT (Comprehensive Uncertainty Assessment Framework for Typhoon), an innovative assessment framework integrating prototype learning and uncertainty quantification through a UProtoMLP neural network. Results demonstrate three key findings: (1) By introducing prototype learning, a meta-learning approach, to guide model updates, we achieved precise assessments with small training samples, attaining an MAE of 1.02, representing 58.5–76.1% error reduction compared to conventional machine learning algorithms. This reveals that implicitly classifying typhoon disaster loss types through prototype learning can significantly improve assessment accuracy in data-scarce scenarios. (2) By designing a dual-path uncertainty quantification mechanism, we realized high-reliability risk assessment, with 95.45% of actual loss values falling within predicted confidence intervals (theoretical expectation: 95%). This demonstrates that the dual-path uncertainty quantification mechanism can provide statistically credible risk boundaries for disaster prevention decisions, significantly enhancing the practical utility of assessment results. (3) Further investigation through controlling dynamic assessment factors revealed significant regional heterogeneity in the relationship between SEURC and directed economic losses. Furthermore, the study found that when typhoon intensity reaches a critical value, the relationship shifts from negative to positive correlation. This indicates that typhoon disaster loss assessment should consider the interaction between urban resilience and typhoon intensity, providing important implications for disaster prevention and mitigation decisions. This paper provides a more comprehensive and accurate assessment method for evaluating typhoon disaster-directed economic losses and offers a scientific reference for determining the influencing factors of typhoon-directed economic loss assessments. Full article
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29 pages, 15098 KiB  
Article
Spatiotemporal Impacts and Mechanisms of Multi-Dimensional Urban Morphological Characteristics on Regional Heat Effects in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area
by Jiayu Wang, Yixuan Wang and Tian Chen
Land 2025, 14(4), 729; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14040729 - 28 Mar 2025
Viewed by 207
Abstract
The impact of urban morphology characteristics on regional thermal environments is a crucial topic in urban planning and climate adaptation research. However, existing studies are often limited to a single dimension and fail to fully reveal the spatiotemporal impact mechanisms of multi-dimensional urban [...] Read more.
The impact of urban morphology characteristics on regional thermal environments is a crucial topic in urban planning and climate adaptation research. However, existing studies are often limited to a single dimension and fail to fully reveal the spatiotemporal impact mechanisms of multi-dimensional urban morphology on thermal environments and their connection to regional planning policies. This study focuses on the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), combining quantitative data from landscape pattern indices, land use expansion patterns, and local climate zones (LCZs) derived from 2000 to 2020. By using geographically weighted regression and spatial autocorrelation analysis, we systematically explore the spatiotemporal effects and mechanisms of multi-dimensional urban morphology characteristics on regional thermal effects. We found the following points. (1) Built-up land patch density is significantly positively correlated with LST, with the urban heat island (UHI) effect spreading from core areas to the periphery; this corroborates the thermal environment differentiation features under the “multi-center, networked” spatial planning pattern of the GBA. (2) Outlying expansion mitigates local LST rise through an ecological isolation effect, and infill expansion significantly exacerbates the UHI effect due to high-intensity development, reflecting the differentiated impacts of various expansion patterns on the thermal environment. (3) LCZ spatial distribution aligns closely with regional planning, with the solar radiation shading effect of high-rise buildings significantly cooling daytime LSTs, whereas the thermal storage properties of traditional building materials and human heat sources cause nighttime LST increases; this reveals the deep influence of urban morphology mechanisms, building materials, and human activities on thermal environments. The findings provide scientific support for achieving a win–win goal of high-quality development and ecological security in the GBA while also offering a theoretical basis and practical insights for thermal environment regulation in high-density urban clusters worldwide. Full article
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