Identification of surface urban heat versus cool islands for arid cities depends on the choice of urban and rural definitions

Liu, Zehong; Ye, Richen; Yang, Qiquan; Hu, Ting; Liu, Yue; Chakraborty, TC; Liao, Zhenxuan

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175631

Identification of surface urban heat versus cool islands for arid cities depends on the choice of urban and rural definitions

Journal Article · Mon Aug 19 04:00:00 EDT 2024 · Science of the Total Environment

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175631· OSTI ID:2483648

Liu, Zehong ^[1]; Ye, Richen ^[2]; Yang, Qiquan ^[3]; Hu, Ting ^[1]; Liu, Yue ^[4]; Chakraborty, TC ^[5]; Liao, Zhenxuan ^[6]

Nanjing Univ. of Information Science and Technology (China)
Guangzhou Urban Planning & Design Survey Research Institute Co. (United States)
Tongji University, Shanghai (China); Macau University of Science and Technology (China)
Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou (China)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sanming University (China)

The urban heat island (UHI) effect in arid cities can be small or even negative, the latter known as the urban cool island (UCI) effect. Differences in defining urban and rural areas can introduce uncertainties in detecting UHI or UCI, especially when the UHI signal is small. Here, we compared the surface UHI intensity (SUHII) estimated by a dozen different methods (with multiple urban and/or rural definitions) across 104 arid cities globally, providing a comprehensive evaluation of the uncertainty in SUHII estimates. Results show that the absolute difference in annual average SUHII (ΔSUHII) among methods exceeded 1°C in about half of the arid cities during both daytime and nighttime. Further, the overall annual mean ΔSUHII for all arid cities was 1.35°C during daytime and 1.03 °C at night. The uncertainty arising from simultaneous variations in urban and rural definitions was generally higher than that resulting from their individual changes. It was observed that, with varying definitions of urban and rural areas, nearly 50% of arid cities experienced a sign reversal in daytime SUHII estimates, while approximately 15% exhibited a sign reversal in nighttime SUHII. Variations in urban-rural differences in surface properties, such as vegetation index and albedo, due to differing urban and rural definitions, contributed strongly to the observed SUHII uncertainties. Overall, our results offer new insights into the ongoing debate on heat and cold islands in arid cities, emphasizing a critical need to standardize SUHII estimation frameworks.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 2483648

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA--197860

Journal Information:: Science of the Total Environment, Journal Name: Science of the Total Environment Vol. 951; ISSN 0048-9697

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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