Urban expansion and climate change in the Federal District of Brazil

Abstract

Brazil has made a voluntary commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of the National Policy on Climate Change, but adaptation and mitigation measures for urban areas to promote climate resilience are still lacking. In this context, this article aims to explore the urban thermal environment of Brasília, Brazil. The city was inaugurated in 1960 and its Plano Piloto is a UNESCO World Heritage Site designed by Lucio Costa based on the principles of the modernist movement. In order to evaluate the intra-urban distribution of surface temperature and vegetation, satellite images and remote sensing techniques were used to generate thematic maps. From this information, an exploratory analysis of spatial data was performed to identify clusters where the surface temperature has positive, negative or null autocorrelation. The results of the Moran indices pointed to the spatial dependence of the surface temperature, independent of the variability of the climatic seasons. Observing the urban fabric, the trend towards higher surface temperature values is associated with morphological characteristics such as soil occupation rate, absence of vegetation and shade and predominantly waterproofed surfaces.