Urban landcover differentially drives day and nighttime air temperature across a semi-arid city

Dates

Publication Date: 2022-04-04
Time Period: 2018

Citation

Ibsen, P.C., Jenerette, G.D., Dell, T., Bagstad, K.J., Diffendorfer, J.E., and Ancona, Z.H., 2022, Urban landcover differentially drives day and nighttime air temperature across a semi-arid city: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P91IC3WM.

Summary

Semi-arid urban environments are undergoing an increase in air temperatures, both in average temperatures and in the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events. Within cities, different varieties of urban landcovers (ULC) and their densities influence local air temperatures, either mitigating or increasing heat. Currently, understanding how various combinations of ULCs influence air temperature at the block to neighborhood scale is limited due to the complexities of urban energy balances at small scales. We quantified how ULC influences air temperature at 60 m resolution for day and nighttime climate normals and heatwaves, by integrating data from microclimate temperature sensor networks and high-resolution (1 m2) ULC for Denver [...]

Summary

Semi-arid urban environments are undergoing an increase in air temperatures, both in average temperatures and in the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events. Within cities, different varieties of urban landcovers (ULC) and their densities influence local air temperatures, either mitigating or increasing heat. Currently, understanding how various combinations of ULCs influence air temperature at the block to neighborhood scale is limited due to the complexities of urban energy balances at small scales. We quantified how ULC influences air temperature at 60 m resolution for day and nighttime climate normals and heatwaves, by integrating data from microclimate temperature sensor networks and high-resolution (1 m2) ULC for Denver Colorado’s urban core. We derived ULC drivers of air temperature using a structural equation model, and projected urban heat scenarios of climate normals and heatwaves throughout the extent of urban Denver. We found that, in conjunction with other ULCs, urban tree canopy reduced daytime air temperatures (-0.026° C per % cover), and the combination of impervious surfaces and buildings increased daytime air temperature (0.021° C per % cover). During night hours, irrigated turf and tree canopy reduced temperatures more than the daytime (-0.038° C per % cover). Overall, ULC drove ~17% and 25% of local air temperature during the day and night respectively, with regional factors making up the rest. During heatwaves, ULC influence on daytime air temperatures was strengthened. The results provided evidence showing daytime urban heat mitigation is due to increases in surface shading and transpiration from tree canopies and nighttime heat mitigation in a semi-arid environment is primarily due to transpiration-derived cooling. Our findings inform urban planners seeking to identify potential hot and cool spots within a semi-arid city and mitigate high urban air temperatures through using ULC withing larger urban climate mitigation strategies.

Contacts

Point of Contact :: Peter C Ibsen
Originator :: Peter C Ibsen, G Darrel Jenerette, Tyler Dell, Kenneth J Bagstad, James (Jay) E. Diffendorfer, Zachary H Ancona
Metadata Contact :: Peter C Ibsen
Publisher :: U.S. Geological Survey
Distributor :: U.S. Geological Survey - ScienceBase
SDC Data Owner :: Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
USGS Mission Area :: Core Science Systems

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Metadata_UrbanHeat_3_30_22.xml Original FGDC Metadata	View	21.86 KB	application/fgdc+xml
Data_Dictionary_Ibsen_UrbanHeat.csv		12.83 KB	text/csv
Denver_60m_AirTemp.zip		12.43 MB	application/zip
Denver_LC_Sensor_Day_Night_v2.zip		168.2 KB	application/zip
Metadata_UrbanHeat_3_30_22.html		17.85 KB	text/html

Related External Resources

Type: Related Primary Publication

Ibsen, P.C., Jenerette, G.D., Dell, T., Bagstad, K.J., and Diffendorfer, J.E., 2022, Urban landcover differentially drives day and nighttime air temperature across a semi-arid city: Science of The Total Environment, v. 829, p. 154589, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154589.	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154589

Purpose

The data release has the purpose of serving all the data (that can be released to the public) in a way that can be machine readable. All of the data used in the report is included in tables within the report itself, this data just serves the purpose of providing those datasets in a CSV format for replication purposes. The CSVs provided in this data release can be convereted to XY coordinates and the values can be displayed in a raster or point format.

Urban landcover differentially drives day and nighttime air temperature across a semi-arid city

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