Within-Class and Neighborhood Effects on the Relationship between Composite Urban Classes and Surface Temperature

Peleg Kremer, Neele Larondelle, Yimin Zhang, Elise Pasles and Dagmar Haase
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Peleg Kremer: Department of Geography and the Environment, Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085, USA
Neele Larondelle: Institute of Geography, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany
Yimin Zhang: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085, USA
Elise Pasles: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085, USA
Dagmar Haase: Department of Computational Landscape Ecology, Institute of Geography and Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: Understanding the relationship between urban structure and ecological function—or environmental performance—is important for the planning of sustainable cities, and requires examination of how components in urban systems are organized. In this paper, we develop a Structure of Urban Landscape (STURLA) classification, identifying common compositions of urban components using Berlin, Germany as a case study. We compute the surface temperature corresponding to each classification grid cell, and perform within-cell and neighborhood analysis for the most common composite classes in Berlin. We found that with-class composition and neighborhood composition as well as the interaction between them drive surface temperature. Our findings suggest that the spatial organization of urban components is important in determining the surface temperature and that specific combinations, such as low-rise buildings surrounded by neighborhood trees, or mid-rise buildings surrounded by high-rise buildings, compound to create a cooling effect. These findings are important for developing an understanding of how urban planning can harness structure-function relationships and improve urban sustainability.

Keywords: urban structure; STURLA; surface temperature; urban sustainability; urban composition; urban ecosystem services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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