Abstract
The surface fabric of urbanized areas, (i.e. its constituent land covers and land uses) plays an essential role in the generation of the urban/rural temperature differences, i.e. the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Land surface information, derived from satellite imagery, and complementary information such as demographics can be used as the basis for an understanding of the atmospheric and surface thermal variations within cities. The results of comprehensive land surface characterizations of two major Canadian urban areas, the Greater Toronto Area and Ottawa-Gatineau, are described. Spatial information, including land cover fraction maps, land use and its historic changes, population density maps are compared with infra-urban surface temperature variations derived from satellite thermal imagery. Three aspects of the impacts of land cover and land use on urban land thermal characteristics are addressed, namely, (a) the relationships between surface temperature and subpixel land cover and population density (b) infra-city seasonal temperature variations and (c) the intensification of the urban heat island effect due to urban built-up land growth.
NSTL
Elsevier