The Impact of the Parcel-Level Land Architecture on Land Surface Temperature in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area

Abstract:

The relationship between land surface temperature (LST) and characteristics of the urban land system has received increasing attention in urban heat island research, especially for desert cities. The relationship between the land composition and LST has been widely studied. Such researches generally employ medium or coarser spatial resolution remotely sensed data and primarily focuses on the effects of one land cover type on the LST. In this study, we explore the effects of land system architecture - composition and configuration of different land-cover classes - on LST in the central Arizona-Phoenix metropolitan area at a fine-scale resolution, focused on the composition and configuration of single family residential parcels. A 1 m resolution land-cover map is used to calculate landscape metrics at the parcel level, and 6.8 m resolution data from the MODIS/ASTER are employed to retrieve LST. We introduce the socio-economic factors at neighborhood level as explanatory variables to help control for potential neighborhood effects. Multiple linear regression models examine the effects of landscape configuration on LST at the parcel scale, controlling for the effects of landscape composition and neighborhood characteristics. Results show that the configuration of parcels affects LST, revealing significant variable relationships between that architecture and LST at nighttime and daytime, and the role of the neighborhood effects on the outcomes.