Analysis of Surface Thermal Patterns in Relation to Urban Structure Types: A Case Study for the City of Munich

Abstract

Scientists have reached to a large extent agreement on climate warming for the coming decades. This will especially have immense impact on cities which show in general a significantly higher temperature compared to rural surroundings, e.g. due to high percentage of impervious surfaces. This study shows capabilities of airborne and spaceborne thermal remotely sensed data to derive and analyze land surface temperatures (LST). Dependencies of LST to urban structure types (UST) with respect to their location within the city are analyzed. Results prove distinct correlations between LST and vegetation fraction as well as percentage of impervious surfaces. Beyond this, different USTs prove influences on LST. Last but not least, a general decrease of LST with increasing distance to the city center is confirmed for the city of Munich. However, the USTs superimpose this trend and have a significant influence on the local LST.