Trend Analysis of Urban Heat Island Intensity According to Urban Area Change in Asian Mega Cities

Kyungil Lee, Yoonji Kim, Hyun Chan Sung, Jieun Ryu and Seong Woo Jeon
Additional contact information
Kyungil Lee: Division of Environmental Science & Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 02841 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Korea
Yoonji Kim: Division of Environmental Science & Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 02841 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Korea
Hyun Chan Sung: Division of Environmental Science & Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 02841 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Korea
Jieun Ryu: Division of Environmental Science & Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 02841 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Korea
Seong Woo Jeon: Division of Environmental Science & Ecological Engineering, Korea University, 02841 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Korea

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Urban heat island (UHI) is a phenomenon that occurs in cities worldwide. Therefore, there is an increasing need for studies on the changes in UHI intensity and long-term trends based on macroscopic characteristics related to urbanization. In this study, changes in seasonal UHI intensity based on urban area were analyzed for eight Asian mega cities from 1992–2012. The results indicate that the change in pattern of UHI intensity varies for different cities and seasons. UHI intensity increased as the urban area size increased. Furthermore, the dependency of UHI intensity on the economic situation was also demonstrated. With respect to the seasons, significantly increasing trends appeared during the summer. Moreover, depending on urban characteristics such as geography and climate, increasing trends appeared during other seasons. Population was also found to affect UHI intensity by generating anthropogenic heat; however, its effect as an individual factor appeared to be insignificant. This is a macroscale study that analyzes the effect of urban area size on UHI intensity. Future studies on urbanization factors and levels influencing the UHI intensity using higher resolution materials are required

Keywords: urbanization; urban heat island; climate change; global warming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/1/112/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/1/112/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2019:i:1:p:112-:d:300813

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().