Characterizing the fabric of the urban environment: A case study of Salt Lake City, Utah

Technical Report · Wed Feb 28 04:00:00 EST 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/816058· OSTI ID:816058

Akbari, Hashem ^[1]; Rose, L Shea

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1. LBNL Library

Urban fabric data are needed in order to estimate the impact of light-colored surfaces (roofs and pavements) and urban vegetation (trees, grass, shrubs) on the meteorology and air quality of a city, and to design effective implementation programs. In this report, we discuss the result of a semi-automatic Monte-Carlo statistical approach used to develop data on surface-type distribution and city-fabric makeup (percentage of various surface-types) using aerial color orthophotography. The digital aerial photographs for Salt Lake City covered a total of about 34 km2 (13 mi2). At 0.50-m resolution, there were approximately 1.4 x 108 pixels of data. Four major land-use types were examined: (1) commercial, (2) industrial, (3) educational, and (4) residential. On average, for the areas studied, vegetation covers about 46 percent of the area (ranging 44-51 percent), roofs cover about 21 percent (ranging 15-24 percent), and paved surfaces about 26 percent (ranging 21-28 percent). For the most part, trees shade streets, parking lots, grass, and sidewalks. In most non-residential areas, paved surfaces cover 46-66 percent of the area. In residential areas, on average, paved surfaces cover about 32 percent of the area. Land-use/land-cover (LU/LC) data from the United States Geological Survey were used to extrapolate these results from neighborhood scales to metropolitan Salt Lake City. In an area of roughly 560 km2, defining most of metropolitan Salt Lake City, over 60 percent is residential. The total roof area is about 110 km2, and the total paved surface area (roads, parking areas, sidewalks) covers about 170 km2. The total vegetated area covers about 230 km2.

• Research Organization: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs; Environmental Protection Agency (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098
• OSTI ID: 816058
• Report Number(s): LBNL--47851
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR QUALITY
COOL COMMUNITIES PAVEMENTS ROOFS TREES URBAN HEAT ISLAND
GEOLOGIC SURVEYS
GRAMINEAE
IMAGES
IMPLEMENTATION
LAND USE
METEOROLOGY
PLANTS
RESOLUTION
SHRUBS
SURFACE AREA
TREES