Analysis of urban thermal environments using satellite data and urban microclimate modeling

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of two types of urban morphology existing in the area of Bucharest on the local microclimate, using Landsat satellite data, GIS techniques and numerical modelling. The two types of urban design analyzed are differentiated by the period in which they were constructed, one being built in the communist era and the other in the current period. The phases of the study are: i) geospatial analysis of urban morphology focusing on the urban design features of each period; ii) spatial analysis of the land surface temperature in relation with urban geometry, using Landsat 9 satellite images; iii) simulation of microclimate using ENVI-met software to highlight the local thermal environment. Satellite data analysis highlighted higher values for the land surface temperature in neighborhoods built in the current period compared to the areas built in the communist era. The results of the simulation highlight the distinctions in the thermal environment between the two categories examined, lower values of air and surface temperatures for the neighborhoods built in the communist era.

Keywords

• urban microclimate
• remote sensing
• numerical simulation
• urban morphology