Local climate zone ventilation and urban land surface temperatures: Towards a performance-based and wind-sensitive planning proposal in megacities

• Published in: Sustainable cities and society Vol. 47; p. 101487
• Main Authors: Yang, Jun, Jin, Shanhe, Xiao, Xiangming, Jin, Cui, Xia, Jianhong (Cecilia), Li, Xueming, Wang, Shijun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2019
• Subjects: Frontal area density; Land surface temperature; Local climate zone; Performance-based planning; Urban heat island; Local climate zone; Land surface temperature; Frontal area density; Performance-based planning; Urban heat island
• ISSN: 2210-6707; 2210-6715
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2019.101487

•Multi-type local climate in megacities.•Building height and density contribute to land surface temperature.•The urban frontal area density is positively correlated with the land surface temperature.•Attention should be paid to the influence of urban ventilation on urban environment in urban planning. Performance-based planning (PBP) is designed to determine city planning standards based on local activity characteristics; however, there have been few practical applications of this method. This study applied PBP to assess the impact of urban building morphology on local climate surface temperatures under different wind conditions during 2017 in Shanghai, China using multi-source data, such as frontal area density (FAD), local climatic zone classification, land surface temperature (LST) data, and geographic information. The results showed that urban architectural patterns were one of the important drivers of climate change. High-density high-rise buildings can increase surface temperatures, which were evidenced in Local Climate Zone 4 (LCZ4), LCZ7, and LCZ8 in the city center. A correlation between building FAD and local climate surface temperature was 0.44 during the winter. Also, we found that although seasonal differences affected by wind direction were small, the same wind had different effects on the surface of urban buildings in different climate zones. These findings provide a reference for urban architecture planning and can help to develop urban heat island adaptation strategies based on local conditions.