A methodology to quantitate the thermal influence of different land use types: A case study in Beijing, China.

In this study, we proposed a new methodology of urban thermal environment based on LANDSAT-8 data, to quantitate the influence of various LUTs on the ambient land surface temperature (LST). In this methodology, we developed an urban thermal environment contribution index based on the sliding spatial adaptative window (SSAW-CI), to better quantitate the thermal contribution of each LUT. Two basic assumptions of this methodology are that the influence of the same LUT varies on different LUTs and that the LUT with higher LST may not have a greater heating effect. Thus, we divided each pixel into 7 categories and these 7 LUTs were combined in 49 different ways (including the influence among same LUTs). A case study for Beijing showed that: a) The influence of 73% LUTs on ambient LST reached a relatively stable distance and the distance can be quantitated. b) It was remarkably different in influence intensity among the LUTs with a stable influence range. c) Water body, vegetation, and bare soil had the cooling effect on built-up area of Beijing. All the artificial objects had the heating effect. • We proposed a new methodology to quantitate the thermal impact of land uses. • We developed the contribution index based on the sliding spatial adaptative window. • The influence of the same land use type varies on different land use types. • The land use type with higher land surface temperature may not have a greater heating effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]