Xu, Jiwei, Xu, Xinkun, Wang, Zimeng, Chen, Huiting, Ren, Qiran, Huang, He, Cui, Yao, An, Rui, and Liu, Yaolin
Thermal exposure in street canyons has an essential impact on individual outdoor activities and overall health. Street view images (SVIs) have demonstrated significant value in investigating thermal exposure within street canyons. However, current SVIs-based studies cannot explicitly reflect daily thermal exposure, as their focus has been primarily on the spatial distribution of thermal exposure indicators. Few studies explored the relationship between thermal exposure and walking accessibility. In response to this situation, this study proposed a human-scale approach to quantify daily thermal exposure by integrating street thermal environment with walking accessibility. Hemispherical images generated from Baidu Street View panoramas were utilized to estimate the solar duration reaching street canyons, thereby reflecting the thermal exposure for each street canyon. Street networks were analyzed using the spatial syntax method to quantify walking accessibility for each road. By combining street-level solar duration and walking accessibility, this study measured daily thermal exposure from the human-scale perspective and identified priority areas for thermal exposure interventions. Furthermore, a comparison was performed between daily thermal exposure and land surface temperature derived from remote sensing. The results indicated that thermal exposure interventions need to be prioritized in new development areas near the Third Ring Road. Additionally, top-down thermal exposure measurements may not accurately represent the daily thermal exposure experienced by pedestrians. Incorporating human-scale thermal exposure as another essential indicator can contribute to a more comprehensive analysis of thermal exposure in urban planning practice. In summary, the combined approach of spatial syntax and SVIs provides a promising paradigm for fine-grained thermal exposure assessment, which is an initial exploration of human-centered urban planning. • Solar duration is estimated by overlaying the solar path with hemispherical images. • Space syntax is utilized to measure walking accessibility. • A human-scale method is proposed to explore pedestrian daily thermal exposure. • Priority streets are determined by overlaying solar duration and accessibility. • Relying solely on land surface temperatures may cause bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]