Estimation of the Relationship between Urban Park Characteristics and Park Cool Island Intensity by Remote Sensing Data and Field Measurement

The cooling effects of urban parks, which form “Park Cool Island” (PCI), can help decrease land surface temperature (LST) and mitigate urban heat island (UHI) effects. PCI intensity largely depends on the characteristics of urban parks. The relationship between PCI intensity and urban park characteristics such as urban park size has been well documented. However, it is still unclear how urban forest structures in parks affect PCI intensity and particularly whether the relationship changes across seasons. In this study, PCI intensity for 33 parks in Changchun, China was obtained from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data and then correlated with urban park characteristics such as the size derived from “Systeme Probatoire d’Observation dela Tarre” (SPOT) satellite data and the forest structures of parks derived from the field-based survey to uncover the relationship between urban park characteristics and PCI intensity. Our results suggested that (1) The PCI intensity varied across seasons and the cooling effect of parks in summer was higher than that in autumn. (2) The increase of urban park size was still an effective measure to mitigate UHI. However, urban park size was non-linearly correlated to PCI intensity. (3) Not only by increasing urban park size, but also by optimizing urban park shape and forest structures in parks can increase PCI intensity. (4) The relationship between PCI intensity and urban park characteristics changed across seasons and seasons should be considered when exploring the relationship between them. These findings can deepen the understanding of PCI formation and provide useful information for urban planners about how to design urban parks to maximize their PCI intensity and mitigate UHI effects.