The socio-spatial dynamics of extreme urban heat events: The case of heat-related deaths in Philadelphia

Heat is the number one weather-related cause of mortality in the United States; typically punctuated by extreme heat waves. This study examines the relationship between the spatial distribution of vulnerable populations, satellite-detected urban heat island (UHI) and heat-related mortality distributions during a 1993 extreme heat event in Philadelphia, PA. Geostatistical methods are used to compare spatial distributions of vulnerability and to determine concentration of mortality within surface UHI intensity levels. The results suggest the spatial distribution of urban poor is congruent with heat-related death. Additionally, deaths are concentrated in higher order surface UHI intensity levels. The findings suggest that surface UHI measures and population in poverty are important variables in spatially measuring risk from extreme heat events. Coupling surface UHI measures with socioeconomic indicators of vulnerability may enable creation of risk models with improved spatial specificity to assist public health professionals. This approach is demonstrated by developing a linear regression model of potential risk in Philadelphia for the 1993 extreme heat event.     

The impact of tree cover loss on land surface temperature: A case study of central Massachusetts using Landsat Thematic Mapper thermal data

Land surface temperature (LST) variability results from diversity in urban surface materials over space and time such that locations with impervious urban cover experience higher temperature and larger temperature variation compared to non-impervious cover. There is growing awareness that warmer temperatures in urban locations negatively impact city residents by increasing heat related death and energy usage during heat waves. However, little previous work investigates the linkages between urban tree cover loss events related to invasive species eradication and urban heat trends. This paper examines the variation in LST using Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) thermal imagery in Worcester County, Massachusetts where over 30,000 trees were removed since 2008 to eradicate the invasive Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB), most of which existed in urban residential areas. Throughout the study area a 10% loss in tree canopy cover caused a 0.7 °C increase in LST whereas a 10% increase in sub-canopy impervious surface area exposed due to tree loss caused 1.66 °C increase in LST. The Burncoat and Greendale neighborhoods in northern Worcester experienced a combined 48% tree cover loss from 2008 to 2010 due to ALB eradication and an average relative LST increase of 2.4 °C (range 0.6–4.1 °C). Given that areas with an increase in exposed impervious surface produce greater temperature increases than areas of tree loss, future tree replanting efforts may focus on locations that reduce exposed impervious surfaces.     

城市空间扩展的生态环境效应研究——以内蒙古呼和浩特市为例

城市空间扩展对生态环境的影响及其响应研究备受关注。以内蒙古呼和浩特市为例,借助1977—2014年遥感影像,基于城市用地扩展定量分析及相关评估方法,从资源、环境、景观、生态服务价值及生态环境质量与生态风险变化等角度,对其空间扩展所致生态环境效应进行分析。结果表明：研究期内,呼和浩特市建成区面积扩大5.65倍,生态用地减少18.18%,城市排污总量增加1.62倍,热岛比例指数升高0.40倍,斑块数量增加1.12倍,生态系统服务价值降低8.30%,生态环境质量指数下降8.37%,生态压力指数升高6.11倍。可见,呼和浩特城市空间扩展已对生态环境造成影响,是导致生态用地减少、环境污染加重、热岛效应显著、景观格局破碎、生态功能减退、环境质量降低、生态风险加剧的原因之一。研究结论可为有效遏制城市用地扩张对生态环境的负面影响提供理论依据。     

Comparing spatial distributions of infant mortality over time: Investigating the urban environment of Baltimore,Maryland in 1880 and 1920

Infant mortality is a sensitive indicator of urban environmental conditions, and investigating the geography of such an indicator provides insight into variables affecting public health in urban North America in 1880 and 1920. Geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analysis now provide a means by which to view past infant mortality distributions from a new perspective, one not available at the time. This study makes use of data collected from the 1880 and 1920 Vital Statistics Death Records for Baltimore, Maryland - mapping each infant death to his or her place of residence. Previous work with the 1880 data indicates an uneven distribution of infant deaths with some degree of spatial clustering. The current study takes these findings a step further through the use of the local spatial autocorrelation statistic, Gi*, to identify the locations of clusters in one or both years. The aim of the comparison is to determine whether the location of infant mortality clusters remained the same over time indicating persistent environmental, and possibly demographic, challenges in certain neighborhoods. The data indicated hotspots of infant mortality in both years with persistence in the Fells Point area of Baltimore. The significant clusters appeared in neighborhoods with large African American and/or immigrant populations in both years. The hotspots in the primarily African American neighborhood were only significant in 1880 despite presenting some intriguing questions about what caused such a change, particular when the population in that part of the city did not change. This work offers insights into the spatial distribution of infant mortality in the past and clues regarding which parts of the city need additional investigation to better understand their social and environmental characteristics.     

地理单元划分对城市热环境响应规律的影响——以北京为例

尺度效应及空间异质性决定了同一种影响因子在不同地理单元中对生态过程的作用程度存在差异.论文选择城市热环境效应这一典型城市生态过程为研究对象,针对地理单元划分对热环境效应响应规律研究较少的现状,选择土地利用分类、网格、街区、局地气候区4种地理单元,选取常用景观组分指标——归一化差值植被指数(normalized diff...     

Lots for greening: Identification of metropolitan vacant land and its potential use for cooling and agriculture in Phoenix,AZ, USA

The greening of vacant parcels for urban sustainability continues to gain attention from researchers and practitioners, including its use to ameliorate the urban heat island effect and food deserts. Planning for such uses requires accurate inventories of the amount and distribution of vacant parcels, which may prove difficult to produce for large, sprawling urban complexes. This study provides a systematic approach that combines remote sensing and cadastral data to distinguish different forms of vacant land for the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area while reducing computation time. The approach identifies vacant parcels for potential greening, focusing on privately owned land lacking buildings and impervious surfaces. The results for the Phoenix area reveal hot spots of these parcels, many of which reside along the fringe of the metropolis awaiting development. A large number of vacant parcels, however, reside within the metropolitan core and are suitable for greening as well, potentially serving to mitigate the urban heat island effect and food deserts in this region. The identification method and parcel results are detailed.     

PPGIS approach for defining multimodal travel thresholds: Accessibility of popular recreation environments by the water

It is essential to ensure equal accessibility to services, such as sport and recreation facilities or green and water environments. Differences in accessibility can potentially cause negative health and social welfare implications. Accessibility and service area analyses from the perspective of access equality are typically rather simple. They are often based on arbitrary travel-distance thresholds and made only with a single mode of transport in mind. Thus, they exclude the multidimensional nature of accessibility where individuals' travel behavior and perceived accessibility also play an important role. In this paper, a PPGIS method was used to empirically investigate distances and durations that respondents travel with different modes of transport to access popular water environments. Service area analyses were built on person-based and objectively measured threshold values that not only take into account the spatio-temporal elements of transport networks and a land use component but also recognize the requirements and preferences of individuals and their capacity to access and participate. The results showed that the most common mode of transport to access waters is walking. Generally, the residents travel by foot for 1.7 km to access water environments. Cars were found as the second most common mode of transport used, and most of the popular water environments are accessible by car from every corner of the study area in a given travel threshold time. The results demonstrate the importance of deriving local parameters and the potential of the PPGIS approach for accessibility and service area delineation.     

A LiDAR-based flood modelling approach for mapping rice cultivation areas in Apalit,Pampanga

Majority of rice cultivation areas in the Philippines are susceptible to excessive flooding owing to intense rainfall events. The study introduces the use of fine scale flood inundation modelling to map cultivation areas in Apalit, a rice-producing municipality located in the province of Pampanga in the Philippines. The study used a LiDAR-based digital elevation model (DEM), river discharge and rainfall data to generate flood inundation maps using LISFLOOD-FP. By applying spatial analysis, rice cultivation zone maps were derived and four cultivation zones are proposed. In areas where both depth and duration exceed threshold values set in this study, varieties tolerant to stagnant flooding and submergence are highly recommended in Zone 1, where flood conditions are least favorable for any existing traditional lowland irrigation varieties. The study emphasizes that a decline in yield is likely as increasing flood extents and longer submergence periods may cause cultivation areas for traditional irrigated lowland varieties to decrease over time. This decrease in yield may be prevented by using varieties most suitable to the flooding conditions as prescribed in the rice zone classification. The method introduced in this study could facilitate appropriate rice cultivation in flood-prone areas.     

A relative spatial access assessment approach for analyzing potential spatial access to colorectal cancer services in Texas

The usefulness of gravity-based spatial access models is limited because of the uncertainty introduced by the range of values of the impedance coefficient. To solve this problem, this paper proposes the concept of spatial access ratio (SPAR) derived from the enhanced 2-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method — a recent extension of the gravity model — to assess potential spatial access. First, a sensitivity assessment is conducted to verify the effectiveness of SPAR and its advantages in overcoming the uncertainty problem. Then, the E2SFCA method and the shortest travel time method are employed to measure potential spatial access to colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention and treatment services in Texas based on data at the census tract level. The socio-demographic and geographic distributions of potential spatial access to CRC services are also examined. The sensitivity assessment reveals substantial fluctuations in the values of the spatial access index calculated directly by the E2SFCA method under different values of the impedance coefficient. However, the values of SPAR remain stable under different values of the coefficient. A comparative analysis indicates that potential spatial access to primary care physicians (PCPs), CRC screening facilities, and oncologists varied among different racial/ethnic and socioeconomic population groups as well as in different geographic regions in Texas. Non-Hispanic blacks, Asians, and people in affluent areas had a geographical advantage in accessing CRC services than other groups. The urban/rural difference was more obvious and serious than those of different racial/ethnic groups and groups with different socio-economic statuses, as metropolitan residents had more than three times the potential spatial access than isolated rural residents.     

Policy-relevant indicators for mapping the vulnerability of urban populations to extreme heat events: A case study of Philadelphia

The recent global increase in extreme heat events linked to climate change is projected to continue. The additive effect of urban heat islands from impervious surfaces and urban heat emissions (e.g., from transportation and building cooling) exacerbates extreme heat events in urban areas, exposing dense populations to extreme heat with implications for human health. Ground- and satellite-based data on urban and suburban temperatures and vegetation over a historical period can help identify temporal and geospatial trends in heat exposure. A set of indicators has been developed to map the exposure, social sensitivity, and vulnerability of urban populations to heat wave health impacts. Guided by an Advisory Group of local planners in the pilot city of Philadelphia, localized trends of increasing urban extreme heat events using MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) data, confirmed with urban and non-urban temperature monitor data were identified. For the Philadelphia study area, the number of heat-event days in the urban setting has increased from approximately 4 days in 1980 to almost 12 days in 2013, while the non-urban setting has consistently experienced 5 days of heat events per year across the time period. Warmer micro-climates with limited vegetative cooling and elevated LSTs were also identified. The exposure indicator was combined with areas of high social sensitivity (e.g., low-income and elderly) to create a vulnerability indicator, showing significant overlap between highly exposed and highly sensitive populations. As a measure of the adaptive capacity of local governments to reduce the urban heat island, evidence of targeted vegetation increases or reduced localized temperatures linked to urban greening and cooling programs were sought, though none were of a scale to be identified by the 1 km satellite data utilized. The indicators have helped local decision makers to understand patterns of vulnerability, and may be used in the future to target adaptation actions and measure results (LST reduction or vegetation increase) from existing adaptation actions.     

A comparative approach to modelling multiple urban land use changes using tree-based methods and cellular automata: the case of Greater Tokyo Area

Urban multiple land use change (LUC) modelling enables the realistic simulation of LUC processes in complex urban systems; however, such modelling suffers from technical challenges posed by complicated transition rules and high spatial heterogeneity when predicting the LUC of a highly developed area. Tree-based methods are powerful tools for addressing this task, but their predictive capabilities need further examination. This study integrates tree-based methods and cellular automata to simulate multiple LUC processes in the Greater Tokyo Area. We examine the predictive capability of 4 tree-based models – bagged trees, random forests, extremely randomised trees (ERT) and bagged gradient boosting decision trees (bagged GBDT) – on transition probability prediction for 18 land use transitions derived from 8 land use types. We compare the predictive power of a tree-based model with multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and among themselves. The results show that tree-based models generally perform better than MLP, and ERT significantly outperforms the three other tree-based models. The outstanding predictive performance of ERT demonstrates the advantages of introducing bagging ensemble and a high degree of randomisation into transition probability modelling. In addition, through variable importance evaluation, we found the strongest explanatory powers of neighbourhood characteristics for all land use transitions; however, the size of the impacts depends on the neighbourhood land use type and the neighbourhood size. Furthermore, socio-economic and policy factors play important roles in transitions ending with high-rise buildings and transitions related to industrial areas.     

Analysis of spatial patterns of public attention on housing prices in Chinese cities: A web search engine approach

Housing price has become one of the most pressing issues facing urban residents in China in recent years and received considerable attention. However, detailed housing price data are often ill-documented or unavailable for the public, thus posing a grand challenge for the study of housing prices in China. Because individuals' Internet search activities can be recorded by web search engines, the analysis of these web search activities in cyber-space may provide a means of better understanding public attention and associated concerns in real geographic space. In this study, we focus on exploring the spatial patterns of public attention on housing price through the analysis of web query activities based on Baidu Index, a Chinese keyword analysis tool from Baidu web search engine. We propose a new index based on keyword query outcome from Baidu search database to analyze spatially heterogeneous patterns of housing price attention from 19 large and medium-sized cities in China. We evaluate the spatial network structure of housing price attention, and develop a new index to measure the intensity of interaction relationships among cities of interest. Our results show that spatial interactions of housing price attention between cities evaluated using the new method are consistent with those from a gravity model. Meanwhile, as revealed from Baidu Index-based indicators, strong spatial association patterns exist among cities that form urban agglomerations. Further, our results demonstrate that the web search engine approach, based on the coupling of cyber-space and geographic space, provides solid support for the study of housing price attention and its spatially explicit patterns in China.     

“源-汇”景观格局的热岛效应研究——以武汉市为例

论文基于2017年Landsat 8遥感影像,通过GIS技术选取城市地表温度、源汇景观密度、源汇景观贡献度和景观效应指数,结合地理空间分析和数理统计方法,分析了武汉市局部源汇景观格局对城市地表温度的贡献及其效应。结果表明：① 武汉市城区热岛(urban heat island, UHI)季节变化明显,夏季热岛强度大、范围广,呈“大”字型分布,工业集聚区和经济开发区产生的UHI更显著;② 武汉市城区平均地表温度(land surface temperature, LST)在距市中心约8 km处达到峰值后沿城乡梯度逐渐下降,呈现“倒钩型”特征,这一现象与景观密度变化密切相关;③ LST与源(正向)、汇(负向)景观密度存在极强相关性,不透水表面是城区热岛的主要贡献因子;④ 相同密度的水体和绿地,水体更具有削弱城市热岛效应的功能;⑤ 一般当汇-源景观面积比>0.89(汇区密度>0.47)时,局部景观格局对城市热岛有缓解作用,且局部汇区越集中缓解效果越显著。     

Testing for similarity in area-based spatial patterns: A nonparametric Monte Carlo approach

The proliferation of geographic information systems and point data has made the analysis of spatial point patterns of increasing interest in a variety of disciplines. Though early forms of spatial point pattern analysis were limited in their scope, current forms have been developed that provide significant insight into underlying data generating processes. This paper builds on the spatial point pattern analysis literature through the development of a nonparametric Monte Carlo spatial point pattern test (and corresponding index) to measure the degree of similarity between two spatial point patterns. The applicability of this new test is then shown using crime data.     

Urban forest loss using a GIS-based approach and instruments for integrated urban planning:A case study of Jo(a)o Pessoa,Brazil

Urban forests play an important role in the thermal comfort and overall life of local populations in large-and medium-sized cities.This study analyzes urban forest loss and maps land use and land cover (LULC) changes between 1991 and 2018 by evaluating the use of urban planning instruments for the mitigation of urban forest loss in Jo～o Pessoa,Brazil.For this purpose,satellite-derived LULC images from 1991,2006,2010 and 2018 and data on urban forest loss areas obtained using the Google Earth Engine were used.In addi-tion,this paper also discusses the instruments used for integrated urban planning,which are(a) the legal sector,responsibility and nature;(b) the urban expansion process;and (c) the elements of urban infrastructure.The results show a clear shift in land use in the study area.The major changes in LULC classes occurred in urban areas and herbaceous vegetation,while the greatest loss was in arboreal/shrub vegetation.Thus,an increase in the pressure to occupy zones intended for environmental preservation could be estimated.Our results showed similar accuracies with other studies and more spatial details.The characteristics of the patterns,traces,and hotspots of urban expansion and forest cover loss were explored.We highlighted the potential use of this proposed framework to be applied and validated in other parts of the world to help better understand and quantify various aspects of ur-ban-related problems such as urban forest loss mapping using instruments for integrated urban planning and low-cost approaches.     

山地高密度城市热岛效应的多约束因子格局分析与定量探测——重庆都市区案例研究

城市热岛受城市地表多因素影响,山地城市的情况则更为复杂.本文以典型山地城市重庆为例,基于Landsat8 OLI/TIRS影像、高精度矢量建筑等多源空间数据,采用城市地温反演、归一化植被指数、天空开阔度建模等方法,重点针对城市建成区,通过地理探测器分析各因子对城市热岛效应的约束力.研究表明:①在都市区全域,城市热场空间...     

Fighting for a future: an actor-oriented planning approach to landscape preservation in Galicia

Modification and channelization of streams and rivers have been conducted extensively throughout the world during the past century. Subsequently, much effort has been directed at re-creating the lost habitats and thereby improving living conditions for aquatic organisms. However, as restoration methods are plentiful, it is difficult to determine which one to use to get the anticipated result. The aim of this study was to compare two commonly used methods in small Danish streams to improve the physical condition: re-meandering and passive restoration through cease of maintenance. Our investigation included measurement of the physical conditions in 29 stream reaches covering four different groups: (1) re-meandered streams, (2) LDC streams (the least disturbed streams available), (3) passively restored streams (>10?years stop of maintenance) and (4) channelized and non-restored streams. The in-stream habitats were compared through analysis of the measured physical parameters and by applying a habitat model. We found that re-meandering is a more effective way of re-creating near-natural physical conditions in small streams compared to passive restoration. This is probably due to the limited energy in small streams which restricts re-shaping of the stream channel. However, based on habitat suitability modelling, the change to the physical condition did not translate into improved habitat suitability for young of the year brown trout highlighting the value of using several methods when evaluating restoration success.     

基于DEM的山区气温地形修正模型——以陕西省耀县为例

In mountainous area, spatial interpolation is the traditional method to calculate air temperature by use of observed temperature data. Due to lack of sufficient observation data in mountainous areas many precise interpolation methods could give only coarse result which could not meet the demand of precision agriculture and local climate exploration. Based on DEMs of 25 m resolution, a reversed model is constructed, with which temperature is simulated to the corresponding slope unit from the solar radiation. Taking Yaoxian county as a test area, and mean monthly temperature data as basic information sources, which are collected from 15 weather stations around Yaoxian county in Shaanxi province from the year of 1970 to 2000, a simulation for the solar radiation cell by cell is completed. By simulating solar radiation at each slope and flat cell unit, the terrain revised temperature model could be realized. A comparison between the simulated temperature and the radiation temperature from TM6 thermal infrared image shows that the terrain improved model gets a finer temperature distribution at local level. The accuracy of simulated temperature in mountainous area is higher than it is in flat area.     

Terrain revised model for air temperature in mountainous area based on DEMs: A case study in Yaoxian county

In mountainous area, spatial interpolation is the traditional method to calculate air temperature by use of observed temperature data. Due to lack of sufficient observation data in mountainous areas many precise interpolation methods could give only coarse result which could not meet the demand of precision agriculture and local climate exploration. Based on DEMs of 25 m resolution, a reversed model is constructed, with which temperature is simu-lated to the corresponding slope unit from the solar radiation. Taking Yaoxian county as a test area, and mean monthly temperature data as basic information sources, which are collected from 15 weather stations around Yaoxian county in Shaanxi province from the year of 1970 to 2000, a simulation for the solar radiation cell by cell is completed. By simulating solar radia-tion at each slope and flat cell unit, the terrain revised temperature model could be realized. A comparison between the simulated temperature and the radiation temperature from TM6 thermal infrared image shows that the terrain improved model gets a finer temperature dis-tribution at local level. The accuracy of simulated temperature in mountainous area is higher than it is in flat area.