Browsing by Author "Zawadzka, J. E."

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    Assessment of heat mitigation capacity of urban greenspaces with the use of InVEST urban cooling model, verified with day-time land surface temperature data
    (Elsevier, 2021-06-04) Zawadzka, J. E.; Harris, Jim A.; Corstanje, Ronald
    Accurate quantification of the heat mitigation capacity of urban greenspaces is essential in planning decisions due to increased thermal pressures on existing and new urban environments associated with climate change. However, this often requires data analytical skillsets that may not be available to the planning community. The recently developed InVEST 3.8.7 Urban Cooling model addresses this limitation by using several easily accessible parameters, assigned to a land cover map, to produce a heat mitigation index (HMI) intended to estimate the cooling capacity of vegetation in a spatial context. In this study, we validated the HMI derived for three towns with differing morphologies by comparison to land surface temperature (LST) data using linear regression analysis. We found that the HMI can be used to explain a variable proportion of the variation in LST, with R2 ranging from 0.48 to 0.64 depending on the town, with stronger associations obtained for towns with a higher range of LST values. Higher resemblance to LST data was achieved after resampling of the 2 m resolution model outputs to 30 m resolution, inclusion of water bodies as cooling features, and using cooling distance away from large greenspaces of 100 m. On average, a change in the HMI of 0.1 was associated with 0.76 °C change in LST. We conclude that the model is suitable for assessment of heat mitigation interventions through incorporation of vegetation and water bodies into city plans at scales relevant to masterplans rather than fine-tuning of urban design.
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    The importance of spatial configuration of neighbouring land cover for explanation of surface temperature of individual patches in urban landscapes
    (Springer, 2021-07-15) Zawadzka, J. E.; Harris, Jim A.; Corstanje, Ronald
    Context Relationships between spatial configuration of urban form and land surface temperature (LST) in the excess heat mitigation context are studied over larger tracts of land not allowing for micro-scale recommendations to urban design. Objectives To identify spatial configuration descriptors (SCDs) of urban form and the size of zone of influence conducive to the formation of the coldest and hottest land cover (LC) patches of different types (buildings, grass, paved and trees) from 2 m resolution LC and 2 and 100 m resolution LST maps at two time-steps in the summer. Methods Random Forest regression models were deployed to explain the LST of individual LC patches of different types based on SCDs of core LC patches and patches in their neighbourhoods. ANOVA was used to determine significantly different values of the most important SCDs associated with the coldest and hottest LC patches, and analysis of quartiles informed specification of their ranges. Results Urban form in the immediate neighbourhood to the core LC patches had a strong influence on their LST. Low elevation, high proximity to water, and high aggregation of trees, being important to the formation of the coldest patches of all types. High resolution of LST contributed to a higher accuracy of results. Elevation and proximity to water gained in importance as summer progressed. Conclusions Spatial configuration of urban form in the nearest proximity to individual LC patches and the use of fine resolution LST data are essential for issuing heat mitigation recommendations to urban planners relevant to micro-scales.