Direct and indirect impacts of land use/cover change on urban heat environment: a 15-year panel data study across 365 Chinese cities during summer daytime and nighttime

Land use/cover change (LUCC) can directly and indirectly affect surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) and the effects need to be decomposed. To perform long-term trend analyses of contribution indexes (CIs) of land use types to urban heat environment in cities and to deconstruct direct and indirect effects of LUCC on SUHII within geographical regions. Mann–Kendall test and Sen’s slope were used to examine the trends of CIs and SUHII in 365 cities during summer of 2005–2019. Structural equation models were established to quantify direct and indirect effects of land use types’ CIs on SUHII in six geographical regions of China. First, SUHII in 78.08