Coupling between Surface and Canopy Urban Heat Islands: Implications for Heat Stress
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2021) | Viewed by 5133
Special Issue Editors
Interests: atmosphere–biosphere interactions; urban heat islands; boundary-layer meteorology; remote sensing
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The urban heat island (UHI) effect—the presence of higher temperatures in cities—is a well-known impact of urbanization at the local scale. With the majority of the global population expected to live in urban areas in the future and the UHI adversely affecting public health through increased heat stress, understanding, predicting, and mitigating the UHI is becoming increasingly relevant as we prepare for a warmer future. The UHI is generally measured using either ground-based weather stations or through satellite observations. These two measures of the UHI are not identical, since weather stations measure the air temperature within the urban canopy layer, while satellites detect the radiometric temperature of the urban land surface. Accordingly, these two types of UHIs are termed the canopy and surface UHI, respectively. The methodological convenience of using satellite observations has led to a proliferation of studies on the surface UHI. However, a handful of studies have demonstrated that surface UHI and canopy UHI are not identical, with possibly differing diurnal and seasonal trends. Given that air temperature is more relevant for public health, while surface temperature influences local weather and climate, it is important to understand how these two variables—canopy and surface UHI—vary across space and time.
This Special Issue aims to better understand the interactions between canopy and surface UHI across different climate zones and urban forms, and what that means for urban heat stress for the present and in the future. We invite single- as well as multi-city studies on understanding and quantifying the degree of coupling between canopy and surface UHI using satellite data, numerical weather modeling, weather station measurements, etc. Additionally, contributions examining the heat stress caused by urbanization and how well that relates to satellite-derived estimates of surface UHI are also welcome.
Prof. Xuhui Lee
Mr. TC Chakraborty
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- urbanization
- urban heat islands
- canopy UHI
- surface UHI
- heat stress
- remote sensing
