Spatial Analysis of Urban Residential Sensitivity to Heatwave Events: Case Studies in Five Megacities in China

Abstract

Urban heatwaves increase residential health risks. Identifying urban residential sensitivity to heatwave risks is an important prerequisite for mitigating the risks through urban planning practices. This research proposes a new paradigm for urban residential sensitivity to heatwave risks based on social media Big Data, and describes empirical research in five megacities in China, namely, Beijing, Nanjing, Wuhan, Xi’an and Guangzhou, which explores the application of this paradigm to real-world environments. Specifically, a method to identify urban residential sensitive to heatwave risks was developed by using natural language processing (NLP) technology. Then, based on remote sensing images and Weibo data, from the perspective of the relationship between people (group perception) and the ground (meteorological temperature), the relationship between high temperature and crowd sensitivity in geographic space was studied. Spatial patterns of the residential sensitivity to heatwaves over the study area were characterized at fine scales, using the information extracted from remote sensing information, spatial analysis, and time series analysis. The results showed that the observed residential sensitivity to urban heatwave events (HWEs), extracted from Weibo data (Chinese Twitter), best matched the temporal trends of HWEs in geographic space. At the same time, the spatial distribution of observed residential sensitivity to HWEs in the cities had similar characteristics, with low sensitivity in the urban center but higher sensitivity in the countryside. This research illustrates the benefits of applying multi-source Big Data and intelligent analysis technologies to the understand of impacts of heatwave events on residential life, and provide decision-making data for urban planning and management.