Continuous assessment of the factors driving the urban surface thermal environment in 1,469 cities worldwide
Jun Yang, Jiayi Ren, Felix Creutzig, Bingyu Zhao, Wei Sun, Xiangming Xiao, Jianhong Xia, Quansheng Ge
Abstract
Identifying global heterogeneity in surface thermal environments is crucial for urban cooling. The 10-day thermal condition index (TCI) from geostationary satellites represents the warmth of individual pixels (with a spatial resolution of 5 km) relative to their historical climatic temperature range, enhancing the understanding of local thermal conditions. Here, we report the global patterns and correlations of the TCI in 2021 in relation to topography (measured as DEM N ), vegetation cover (measured as EVI N ), and socioeconomic factors (measured as NL N ). The results show that 53% of cities are facing heat stress that is higher than the global average. The driving factors acting on the TCI show spatial non-stationarity. The influences of DEM N and EVI N on the TCI show positive regional correlations, while NL N and TCI mainly show negative spatial correlations. From a global perspective, the vegetation regulation effect is relatively weak. The results provide support for the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.