Mechanism of Housing-related Urban Heat Island Formation and Dynamic in High-density Urban Context: A Numerical Study of Hong Kong

A large sum of evidence are suggesting that high-density cities are apt to suffer from Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect due to deterioration of natural infrastructure, compactness of built-up environment, and the land... [ view full abstract ]

A large sum of evidence are suggesting that high-density cities are apt to suffer from Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect due to deterioration of natural infrastructure, compactness of built-up environment, and the land use/coverage change originated from intensified urban developmental activities. Residential land is an essential composition of urban land use as it grows along with urbanization. The increase of residential land proportion is unavoidable, since housing is a prerequisite of living in cities. This research is committed to detect and discuss how the specific housing development might influence the formation or dynamics of UHI, through the integration of data-driven analysis and literature studies about Hong Kong as a case study.The research is built up upon the monitoring of the real dynamic of land surface objects and temperature through Landsat Thematic Mapper and Operational Land Imager data. By combining the derived land surface temperature with aerial photo of ground objects, this paper qualitatively analysis the impact of housing on the UHI variances in terms of morphology, density and mode of development. The result indicates that the UHI effect can be intensified under several conditions in terms of residential land development, and UHI can be ameliorated by increasing the coverage of green space. Findings of this paper is significant to show the contribution of different indicators of housing development in high-density area through quantitative model, estimate the UHI dynamic under changing conditions and give advice on the strategies for developing more livable buildings.