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An alternative method to characterize the surface urban heat island
Philippe Martin1, Yves Baudouin, Philippe Gachon
1Meteorological Service of Canada, Environment Canada, Montréal, Québec, Canada, philippe.martin@ec.gc.ca.
International Journal of Biometeorology
|September 20, 2014
Summary
Researchers developed a new method to identify urban heat islands (UHIs) within cities. This approach, using surface intra-urban heat islands (SIUHIs), helps pinpoint hotspots for heat health warning systems.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Remote Sensing
- Urban Climatology
Background:
- Urban heat island (UHI) effect describes warmer metropolitan areas compared to surroundings.
- Surface urban heat island (SUHI) quantifies land surface temperature (LST) differences.
- Existing UHI definitions face challenges in selecting urban cores and rural references.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce a novel definition of surface intra-urban heat islands (SIUHIs) that excludes rural comparisons.
- To establish a thermal reference based on temperature thresholds above the city's spatial average LST.
- To analyze SIUHIs considering global solar radiation (GSR) conditions.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Landsat TM and ETM+ satellite imagery from 1984-2011 for Montreal, Canada.
- Estimated LST during warm seasons to calculate SIUHIs.
- Correlated cumulative GSR (24-48 hours prior) with SIUHI occurrence and intensity.
Main Results:
- Cumulative GSR significantly linked to higher SIUHI categories (+3 to +7 °C above mean LST).
- A strong correlation (≈0.8) found for SIUHI+6 (6 °C hotter than city mean LST) after 24h of GSR.
- Identified SIUHI+6 as a reliable thermal threshold for urban hotspots.
Conclusions:
- The SIUHI approach provides a new criterion for identifying intra-urban thermal variations.
- This method can serve as a foundational step for developing heat health watch and warning systems (HHWWS).
- Effective for early detection of urban hotspots during severe heat spells.
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