Impact of Land Cover Composition and Structure on Air Temperature Based on the Local Climate Zone Scheme in Hangzhou, China

Abstract

At present, conflicts between urban development and the climate environment are becoming increasingly apparent under rapid urbanization in China. Revealing the dynamic mechanism and controlling factors of the urban outdoor thermal environment is the necessary theoretical preparation for regulating and improving the urban climate environment. Taking Hangzhou as an example and based on the local climate zones classification system, we investigated the effects of land cover composition and structure on temperature variability at the local scale. The measurement campaign was conducted within four local climate zones (LCZ 2, 4, 5, and LCZ 9) during 7 days in the summer of 2018. The results showed that the temperature difference within the respective LCZ was always below 1.1 °C and the mean temperature difference between LCZs caused by different surface physical properties was as high as 1.6 °C at night. Among four LCZs, LCZ 2 was always the hottest, and LCZ 9 was the coolest at night. In particular, the percentage of pervious surface was the most important land cover feature in explaining the air temperature difference. For both daytime and nighttime, increasing the percentage of pervious surface as well as decreasing the percentage of impervious surface and the percentage of building surface could lower the local temperature, with the strongest influence radius range from 120 m to 150 m. Besides, the temperature increased with the SVF increased at day and opposite at night.