Spatial-Temporal Analysis of the Urban Heat Island Using Satellite Images: Capitals of Andalusia

Abstract

The search for new techniques that make it possible to determine economically and precisely the phenomenon of urban climate alteration called Urban Heat Island (ICU) has become one of the great challenges of society. Their knowledge of cities would allow the implementation of mitigation and resilience measures that tend to minimize their effects and the economic cost that they entail. In this research, the Terrestrial Surface Temperature (TST) and the ICU have been determined through Sentinel 3 satellite images of the eight capitals of Andalusia (Spain) during the year 2020. These are located in an area classified as highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which, together with the use of local climate zones (ZCL), allows the results to be extrapolated to other cities with the same types of climate zones. The results obtained indicate that during the morning there is an urban cooling island with an average temperature of-0.76 ºC and during the night an ICU with an average temperature of 1.29 ºC. Both present higher intensities in compact ZCL of medium and low density in contrast to open and industrial ZCL. The seasonal variability of the diurnal ICU is intensified during the summer and winter and the nocturnal one during the winter and autumn. The existence of negative diurnal relationships significant at 99% (p <0.01) between the ICU and environmental contamination and of nocturnal relationships in the same conditions between the ICU and the TST, plant fraction (Pv) and contamination are verified. © 2022, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. All rights reserved.