Studying the Urban Heat Island Using a Local Climate Zone Scheme

With rapid urbanization and the rise of climate change awareness, policy makers and urban planners are seeking methods and schemes that consider the urban heat island (UHI) effect. In order to investigate to what extent a homogeneous urban fabric leads to a specific thermal pattern, a local climate zone (LCZ) scheme was utilized and classification has been applied in the urban areas of Chongqing. Urban indicators were calculated to match LCZ types of measurement points. Using a mobile measurement approach, we analyzed screen-height air temperature distribution inside local climate zones in both spring and summer. An apparent seasonal difference inside LCZs was found, with air temperature amplitude about 0.8 degrees C in spring and 0.9 degrees C in summer. The average air temperature difference in LCZ 1 was 2.9 degrees C between the two seasons, while in LCZ H this difference was as high as 3.5 degrees C. The reasons why LCZ H had relatively high air temperature were explained and further investigation of UHI using LCZ scheme was proposed.