Urban Heat Islands: Beating the Heat with Multi-Modal Spatial Analysis

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2012.03049v1
• Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2020 15:18:22 GMT
• Title: Urban Heat Islands: Beating the Heat with Multi-Modal Spatial Analysis
• Authors: Marcus Yong and Kwan Hui Lim
• Abstract summary: Excessive levels of heat stress leads to problems at various levels, ranging from the individual to the world. At the world level, UHI potentially contributes to global warming and adversely affects the environment. We propose a framework for investigating how UHI is affected by a city's urban form characteristics through the use of statistical modelling.
• Score: 0.3121997724420106
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: In today's highly urbanized environment, the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon is increasingly prevalent where surface temperatures in urbanized areas are found to be much higher than surrounding rural areas. Excessive levels of heat stress leads to problems at various levels, ranging from the individual to the world. At the individual level, UHI could lead to the human body being unable to cope and break-down in terms of core functions. At the world level, UHI potentially contributes to global warming and adversely affects the environment. Using a multi-modal dataset comprising remote sensory imagery, geo-spatial data and population data, we proposed a framework for investigating how UHI is affected by a city's urban form characteristics through the use of statistical modelling. Using Singapore as a case study, we demonstrate the usefulness of this framework and discuss our main findings in understanding the effects of UHI and urban form characteristics.

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