ASSESSING THE SPATIO-TEMPORAL BEHAVIOURS OF INCOMPLETE SURFACE TEMPERATURES USING THERMAL REMOTE SENSING AND GIS
Abstract
This study aimed to better understand the spatiotemporal behaviors of "incomplete" surface temperatures, a subset of all the active surfaces in urban areas, that are relevant for outdoor thermal comfort assessments. This study answered the following questions: 1. What is the temperature of "incomplete surfaces" that are most relevant in urban thermal comfort assessments, and what is its spatiotemporal behavior in different urban neighborhoods? 2. How are the relevant incomplete temperatures related to nadir view remotely sensed surface temperatures (Tplan)? By combining distributions of wall temperatures from TUF-3D, an urban energy balance model, and horizontal surface temperatures from airborne remotely observed data with building polygons, the study defines and estimates the pedestrian temperature (Tped), an application-relevant incomplete surface temperatures for four Local Climate Zones (LCZ 5,6,7, and 8) in Phoenix, USA for both daytime and nighttime. The results show that Tped can be up to 8oC less than Tplan. The results also show that Tped varies within different sub areas of a large study area, and also it varies between different study areas. For daytime Tplan, LCZ 6 recorded the highest temperature value while LCZ 8 recorded the lowest temperature value, even though the difference between the two temperatures is very small.