Surface Heat Island in Shanghai and Its Relationship with Urban Development from 1989 to 2013

Abstract

The continuous expansion of impervious artificial surfaces in cities has significantly influenced the urban thermal environment. This paper examines the spatiotemporal variation of the diurnal surface urban heat island (SUHI) in Shanghai from 1989 to 2013, a period during which the city has experienced drastic development changes. A remote sensing approach was taken to derive the spatial patterns of Shanghai’s land surface temperature (LST) from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images and Operational Land Imager (OLI) data. The LST pattern was further classified into five LST classes to look at the relative SUHI intensity level across the whole city. Spatial analyses, namely, spatial association and centroid movement analysis, were conducted to reveal the trends of LST changes at both local and holistic scales. To understand the potential drivers for the present spatiotemporal variation of SUHI, different indicators including land use change, population density, night light data, and vegetation were analyzed and compared with LST changes. Based on the quantitative analysis and the socioeconomic context of Shanghai, “heating up” regions were identified, possible reasons for such SUHI variation were summarized, and districts that are most vulnerable to extreme heat conditions were projected. In terms of implication for urban development, planning and design recommendations were suggested to improve the urban thermal environment in Shanghai.