Associations of Urban and Green Land Covers and Heat Waves in 49 U.S. Cities between 1992 and 2019

Sakib Hasan, Woonsup Choi and Sangjun Kang
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Sakib Hasan: Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA
Woonsup Choi: Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA
Sangjun Kang: Department of Urban Planning & Real Estate, Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung 25457, Korea

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-14

Abstract: The study aimed to examine how changing land use conditions are related to the occurrence of heat waves. The employed methods were (1) the Urban Expansion Intensity Index (UEII) and the Green Expansion Intensity (GEII) for 49 cities in the U.S. between 1992 and 2019; (2) Spearman correlation analyses of heat wave indicators including frequency, season, duration, and intensity for UEII, and GEII, respectively. Major findings include the following: (1) urban areas have increased rapidly with an average UEII value of 1.5; (2) green Areas have increased at a slow pace, which have a GEII average value of 0.017, where the median value is −0.1, meaning the green area is declining in most U.S. cities; (3) The UEII and heat wave duration show a negative relationship with a significant correlation ( γ s = −0.296 and ρ = 0.04); (4) UEII and heat wave intensity show a positive relationship with a significant correlation ( γ s = 0.32 and ρ = 0.027). It was found that heat wave intensity can be a public health issue in high urban expansion intensity areas. The results imply that cities would be better in a more compact pattern with more expanded green areas to mitigate the negative health impacts of heat waves on citizens in urban areas. It is noticeable that there are some patterns to be investigated further in the context of urban developments and heat wave characteristics.

Keywords: urban expansion intensity index; green expansion intensity index; Spearman correlation; heat wave (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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