Modeling the urban thermal environment distributions in Taipei Basin using Local Climate Zone (LCZ)

This study aims to develop a model for predicting thermal distribution in cities based on urban development patterns. Featured by the process of urbanization and land use policy, built environments are varied in land cover, density, building height, and usage. This study applied the classification scheme of Local Climate Zones (LCZs) to categorize land development patterns from the Landsat 8 images. By exploring the relationship between LCZs and air temperature in previous local study, a thermal model was developed. This study utilized the model to predict the thermal distribute condition in Taipei Basin and compared the result with land surface temperature derived from satellite image. Accordingly, parameters and factors used in the model were adjusted to enhance the validity of thermal prediction. As the model can be rapidly applied to predict thermal environments based on land development patterns of different cities, it will assist in identifying areas subjects to heat risk and help decision makers to develop evidence-based mitigation strategies.