ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Studying the Urban Heat Island Using
a Local Climate Zone Scheme
Zhihao Wang, Wu Xing, Yi Huang, Tongan Xie
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Faculty of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Kunming University of Science and Technology,
650500 Kunming, China
Submission date: 2016-04-11
Final revision date: 2016-05-25
Acceptance date: 2016-06-12
Publication date: 2016-11-24
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2016;25(6):2609-2616
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ABSTRACT
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 0.8ºC in
spring and 0.9ºC in summer. The average air temperature difference in LCZ 1 was 2.9ºC between the two
seasons, while in LCZ H this difference was as high as 3.5ºC. The reasons why LCZ H had relatively high
air temperature were explained and further investigation of UHI using LCZ scheme was proposed.