Extreme heat is a leading cause of weather-related human mortality. The urban heat island (UHI) can magnify heat exposure in metropolitan areas. This study investigates the ability of a new MODIS-retrieved near-surface air temperature and humidity dataset to depict urban heat patterns over metropolitan Chicago, Illinois, during June–August 2003–13 under clear-sky conditions. A self-organizing m...

Life-cycle assessment was used to evaluate the widespread installation of green roofs in a typical urban mixed-use neighborhood. Market prices of materials, construction, energy conservation, storm-water management, and greenhouse gas GHG emission reductions were used to evaluate private and social costs and benefits. Results suggest green roofs are currently not cost effective on a private cos...

As the relationship between land surface temperature (LST) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) can not be able to effectively apply after NDVI reached saturation[1]. In this study, the vegetation fraction, which derived from Dimidiate Pixel Model, as the indicator of vegetation abundance has been introduced to analyze remote sensing of the change of urban heat islands (UHIs). Land...

Using 1 km satellite remote sensing observations, this paper examines the clouds, aerosols, water vapor and surface skin temperature over Beijing to understand the possible urban system contributions to the extreme rainfall event on 21 July 2012 (i.e., 721 event). Remote sensing measurements, with the advantage of high spatial resolution and coverage, reveal three key urban-related mechanisms: ...

In this paper, we present surface urban heat island (SUHI) analysis of Shanghai (China) based on the change in land use and land cover using satellite Landsat images from 2002 to 2013. With the rapid development of urbanization, urban ecological and environmental issues have aroused widespread concern. The urban heat island (UHI) effect is a crucial problem, as its generation and evolution are ...

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon prevalently concerns industrialized countries. It consists of a significant increase in temperatures, especially in industrialized and urbanized areas, in particular, during extreme warm periods like summer. This paper explores the climate variability of temperatures in two stations located in Matera city (Southern Italy), evaluating the increase in temper...

Long-term urban and rural climate data spanning January 1995 through October 2013 were analyzed to investigate the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect in a representative mid-sized city of the central US. Locally distributed climate data were also collected at nested low density urban, recently developed, and high density urban monitoring sites from June through September 2013 to improve mechanistic...

Urban areas are major contributors to air pollution and climate change, causing impacts on human health that are amplified by the microclimatological effects of buildings and grey infrastructure through the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Urban greenspaces may be important in reducing surface temperature extremes, but their effects have not been investigated at a city-wide scale. Across a mid-s...