Spatio-Temporal Variation of Economic Drivers of Urban Heat Island Effect in Yangtze River Delta

Abstract

It is not deep enough that the theoretical and empirical analysis of economic drivers on the urban heat island (UHI) effect have been researched. Consequently, the study of economic drivers of the UHI effect is not only conducive to the governance of the UHI problem but also conducive to deepening the study of related issues in the economic field. The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region of China has developed economic status and the special geography of estuaries and coasts. Therefore, 26 central cities in the YRD region are selected as research samples, and the period from 2003 to 2017 is taken as the observation period. The Spatio-temporal variability of UHI intensity caused by industrialization and urbanization is analyzed by using MODIS land surface temperature (LST) data and related yearbook data. The conclusions are as follows:(1) The UHI intensity of cities in the YRD region is significant and fluctuates to a certain extent. (2) Empirical analysis shows that the agglomeration of single economic factors in the process of industrialization and urbanization does correlate with the UHI intensity in the YRD region, but the correlation may show a downward trend due to the influence of exogenous factors suc0h as physical geography. (3) In terms of economic drivers, the combination of multiple factors can produce a greater UHI intensity. The model of their impacts on UHI intensity is increasingly-changed, which is from a model of Fixed Asset Investment and the Motor Vehicle Population as dominant factors to a model of multiple overlapping economic factors, and the latter has a greater impact.