Factors Influencing the Spatial Variability of Air Temperature Urban Heat Island Intensity in Chinese Cities

Few studies have investigated the spatial patterns of the air temperature urban heat island(AUHI)and its controlling factors.In this study,the data generated by an urban climate model were used to investigate the spatial variations of the AUHI across China and the underlying climate and ecological drivers.A total of 355 urban clusters were used.We performed an attribution analysis of the AUHI to elucidate the mechanisms underlying its formation.The results show that the midday AUHI is negatively correlated with climate wetness(humid:0.34 K;semi-humid:0.50 K;semi-arid:0.73 K).The annual mean midnight AUHI does not show discernible spatial patterns,but is generally stronger than the midday AUHI.The urban–rural difference in convection efficiency is the largest contributor to the midday AUHI in the humid(0.32±0.09 K)and the semi-arid(0.36±0.11 K)climate zones.The release of anthropogenic heat from urban land is the dominant contributor to the midnight AUHI in all three climate zones.The rural vegetation density is the most important driver of the daytime and nighttime AUHI spatial variations.A spatial covariance analysis revealed that this vegetation influence is manifested mainly through its regulation of heat storage in rural land.

ON TEMPERATURE CHANGES OF SHANGHAI AND URBANIZATION IMPACTS

To understand how temperature varies in urban Shanghai under the background of global climate change and how it is affected by urbanization, the Shanghai temperature responses to global warming were analyzed, and then the temperature trends of urban and suburb stations under different climatic backgrounds were obtained. The urbanization effects on temperature were studied by comparing urban stations to suburb stations, the relationship between urbanization variables and temperature components were obtained, and observation data of surface and high level were combined to assess the contribution of urbanization effect. In the last part of the paper, the cause of urbanization effects on temperature was discussed. The results indicated: The long term change trend of Shanghai annual mean temperature is 1.31/100a from 1873 to 2004, the periods of 1921 – 1948 and 1979 – 2004 are warmer, and the 1979 – 2004 period is the warmest; compared to suburb stations, the representative urban station has slower decreases in the cool period and faster increases in the warm one; the urban and suburb temperatures have distinct differences resulting from urbanization and the differences are increasing by the year, with the difference of mean temperature and minimum temperature being the greatest in fall and that of maximum temperature being the largest in summer between the urban and suburban areas. The urbanization process accelerates the warming speed, with the minimum temperature being the most obvious; the urbanization effect contributes a 0.4°C increase in 1980s and 1.1°C in 1990s to the annual mean temperature.