Spatiotemporal Changes in the Built Environment Characteristics and Urban Heat Island Effect in a Medium-Sized City, Chiayi City, Taiwan

Jou-Man Huang, Heui-Yung Chang and Yu-Su Wang
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Jou-Man Huang: Department of Landscape Architecture, National Chiayi University, Chiayi City 60004, Taiwan
Heui-Yung Chang: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National Kaohsiung University, Kaohsiung City 81148, Taiwan
Yu-Su Wang: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National Kaohsiung University, Kaohsiung City 81148, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: This study took Chiayi City—a tropical, medium-sized city—as an example to investigate the urban heat island (UHI) effect using mobile transects and built environment characteristics in 2018. The findings were compared to those from a study in 1999 to explore the spatiotemporal changes in the built environment characteristics and UHI phenomenon. The result for the UHI intensity (UHII) during the day was approximately 4.1 °C and at midnight was approximately 2.5 °C. Compared with the survey in 1999, the UHII during the day increased by approximately 1.3 °C, and the UHII at midnight decreased by approximately 1.2 °C. The trend of the spatial distribution of the increasing artificial area ratio (AAR) proved the importance of urban land use expansion on UHI. The results of the air temperature survey were incorporated with the nesting space in GIS to explore the role of built environment characteristics in UHI effects. The higher the population density (PD) and artificial area ratio (AAR) were, the closer the proximity was to the downtown area. The green area ratio (GAR) was less than 0.2 in the downtown area and increased closer to the rural areas. The built environment factors were analyzed in detail and correlated with the UHI effect. The air temperature in the daytime increased with the population density (PD) and artificial area ratio (AAR), but decreased with the green area ratio (GAR) (r = ±0.3–0.4). The result showed good agreement with previous studies.

Keywords: built environment factors; UHI; tropical medium-sized city; artificial area; building coverage rate; green coverage rate; mobile transects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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