Title: Evaluating Environmental and Human Health Impacts of Urban Heat Island Effects in the Houston Metrop
1Evaluating Environmental and Human Health Impacts
of Urban Heat Island Effects in the Houston
Metropolitan Area Using Remote Sensing Data
- Matthew A. Clemonds
- Project Geog 610
- Geographical Methods and Theories
2Houston
- 4th Largest City in the United States
- Population Growth between 1990 and 2000 was 25.8
- Nearly double the national rate of 13
- Only major city in the United States lacking
zoning ordinances - Market forces generally drive commercial location
decisions
Chart from Census 2000, http//www.censusscope.or
g Image from The Houstonian,
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3Houston
- Located in the Sun-Belt
- Characterized by higher temperatures and
particularly, long, stagnant, hot summers - Landscape transformed from
- barely inhabited prairie, grasslands, forest, and
estuarine marsh - to sprawling impervious urban surface
- Unsavory history regarding adherence to EPAs
ozone and air particulate level standards - EPA 1997-1999 8-Hour ozone standards were not met
at any of the ozone monitoring stations in the
Houston Metropolitan area (EPA, 2000)
4The Oil Business
- 1901 Oil wells that gushed at Spindletop, near
Beaumont, followed by important strikes at Humble
and Goose Creek, welded Houston's economy to the
oil business and made the city an Oil Capital.
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5Houston Transformed
- Oil, Great Ocean Access, and the General Spirit
of Texans launched Houstons Rapid Growth,
especially in the last half of the 20th Century
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6Urban Growth / Urban Sprawl
- With all this incredible growth has come
- Urban Sprawl
- Increased impervious urban surface
- Deforestation (Removal of the Tree Canopy)
- Increased need for transportation
- Increase in the amount of Energy needed in the
Area - It has created problems
Image from Guerdon Trueblood, http//www.photovau
lt.com
7The Great Flood of 2001
- Floodwaters block the interchange between
interstate 45 and Interstate 10 north of downtown
Houston, Saturday, June 9, 2001. Twenty two
people died after the remnants of Tropical Storm
Allison dumped an estimated 28 inches of water on
the area. Damage is estimated at 4.88 billion.
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8Urban Physical Geography
- Texts on human impacts fall short for the most
part in regards to urban physical geography - Detwyler and Marcus, 1972 Coates, 1973, 1976 are
early exceptions - They based much of their work on research by
Chandler, 1965 that focused on urban climates - This stimulated many physical geographers to
document the magnitude and character of urban
heat islands, of precipitation modification, of
atmospheric pollution, and of air movement
(Gregory, 2000) - In 1976 Chandler suggested that our cities must
be purposefully planned in order to optimize the
environment of urban areas and to avoid a series
of structural and functional design failures
(Gregory, 2000) - Physical geography can usefully contribute to the
determination of public policies, with respect to
the management and development of urbanized areas
(Chandler et al., 1976)
9Urban Heat Island Phenomenon
- Urban areas with air and surface temperatures
higher than the ambient temperatures associated
with surrounding rural areas. It is quantified by
?TTu-Tr, where Tu is the temperature in urban
areas, and Tr is the temperature in rural areas
(Montavez et al., 2000) - Much research illustrates that the urban heat
island effect ?T can be as high as 6-8F (Matson
et al., 1978) - The urban heat island effect was recognized by
researchers in the 1960s and is dramatically
revealed by the increases in the annual high
temperature in the City of Los Angeles since the
1930s, when tree canopy and vegetation were
replaced with buildings, parking lots, roads, and
industrial and commercial complexes (Heat Island
Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, http//eetd.lbl.gov/HeatIsland/) - Previous research demonstrates that many factors
contribute to the formation of urban heat island
phenomena, including dark surfaces that absorb
more heat from the sun and less vegetation to
provide buildings shade, intercept solar
radiation, and cool the air by "evapotranspiration
" (Henry et al., 1989 Aniello et al., 1995)
10Urban Heat Island Contributors
- Less Vegetation to
- Provide buildings and homes shade
- Intercept solar radiation
- Cool the air by evapotranspiration
- Convective Stagnation
- Very Little or No Air Circulation
- Dark surfaces like
- Buildings
- Parking lots
- Roads
- Industrial Commercial Complexes
- Even Residential Areas that practice development
by clearing an area completely before construction
(Henry et al., 1989 Aniello et al., 1995) and
(Mann, 1993)
11Higher Urban Temperatures Mean
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12Urban Heat Island Effects
- Higher temperatures of urban heat islands
increase air conditioning energy use - As power plants burn more fossil fuel, they
increase both pollution levels and energy costs - Urban heat islands are not only uncomfortably
hot, they are also smoggier - Smog is created by aerial photochemical reactions
of pollutants - Reactions are more likely to occur and intensify
at higher temperatures - Higher temperatures mean, higher concentrations
of smog - Researchers have linked higher temperatures from
urban heat islands to increased ozone pollution
(Lo and Quattrochi, 2003)
13Urban Heat Island Research
- The vast majority of climatological studies of
urban heat islands have been performed using in
situ data of automobile transects and weather
station networks (Voogt and Oke 1997) and
(Montavez et al., 2000) - Although in situ data have the advantage of high
temporal resolution and a long data record, their
spatial resolution is coarse and poor - In recent years, remote sensing technology has
lent itself well to the study of urban heat
islands - Remotely sensed data have higher spatial
resolutions and larger ground coverage - Remote sensing techniques have been used to
compare the urban heat island effect to
vegetation index (Roth et al., 1989), (Gallo and
Tarpley, 1996), and (Kustas et al., 2003) - Fractional vegetation cover and surface moisture
availability have been used to study the impact
of urban growth at Sate College, PA (Owen et al.,
1998) - The influence of urban geometry and morphology on
the urban heat island effect have been examined
(Yamshita and Sekine, 1990), (Nichol, 1996), and
(Sakakibara, 1996) - Most satellite based urban heat island research
work is based on two thermal channels of AVHRR
imagery (Price, 1984 Prata, 1993 Roth et al.
1989 Streutker, 2003) - Landsat (Kawashima et al., 2000) and airborne
ATLAS thermal imagery (Lo et al, 1997 Quattrochi
et al, 2000) were also used to derive land
surface temperatures at higher spatial resolution
14Research Deficiencies and Gaps
- Little research has been done on the analysis of
urban heat island effects in Houston metropolitan
area - An exception is the recent research by Streutker
(2002, 2003) - He utilized the time series from AVHHR images to
depict the development of the urban heat island
in Houston - It is a well designed study, and the analysis
results are convincing and valuable - However due to the poor spatial resolution (1.1
km) of AVHRR imagery, the surface temperature
patterns derived by Streutker (2003) are
extremely coarse and lack spatial details - Furthermore, the relationships between urban land
use change, the formation of urban heat islands,
and their impacts on environmental quality and
public health in the Houston Metropolitan area
have not been investigated by any researcher
15Research Goal and Objectives
- My research intends to map and model urban heat
island phenomena of the Houston Metropolitan area
and examine the impacts of urban heat island
effects on environmental quality and public health
16Specific research objectives include
- Deriving a detailed spatial distribution of
surface temperature for the Houston Metropolitan
area for the years 1984, 1990, 2000, and 2003
(possibly more) using the thermal channels of
satellite (and possibly airborne) data - Classifying land-use and land-cover with special
interest paid toward measuring the tree canopy
for the same years using the multi-spectral
(visible and infrared) bands of satellite data - Analyzing the relationship between micro land-use
and tree canopy with the magnitude and extent of
urban heat island effect, including the
identification of primary factors contributing to
the formation of urban heat island - Assessing the impacts of urban heat island
effects on environmental quality and public
health by analyzing the spatial correlation
between surface temperature and ground-level
ozone, air pollution, and respiratory and
cardiovascular diseases.
?
17Approach and Methodology
- Will utilize the thermal channels of Landsat TM,
ETM and ASTER to derive detailed land
temperature fields and the supervised
classification method to derive information about
land cover and tree canopy based on visible and
infrared channels - Correlation and regression methods will be used
to analyze relationships between urban heat
islands and environmental quality and public
health - Flow Chart (Conceptual Model) ?
18Conceptual Approach / Methodology
?
19Data Sources
- Landsat TM images for 1984 and 1990 with thermal
band (120m spatial resolution) - Landsat ETM for 2000, 2001 and 2002 with thermal
band (10.4-12.5µm), (60m resolution) - Both Landsat TM and ETM have 5 visible and
infrared bands with 30 m spatial resolution - ASTER images for 2000 and 2001 that have 5
thermal bands (90m spatial resolution) - Digital Orthorectified Aerial Photographs for
1996 and 2002
20Part of the Houston Metropolitan Area
Landsat TM Image
21Analysis of Relationships between Land Use, Tree
Canopy, and Heat Islands
- Tree canopy will be isolated and evaluated
through the Normalized Difference Vegetation
Index (NDVI) and classification results - The relationship between urban heat island effect
and vegetation coverage will be analyzed by
correlating surface temperature to the NDVI
through a regression model (Gallo et al., 1995) - Although residential areas are generally not as
hot as commercial and industrial areas, newer
neighborhoods are significantly warmer than older
neighborhoods that have older (more) tree cover
(Aniello et al., 1995)
22Houston Has an Excellent Model
- To study the contrast between
- the popular cut-down everything then build
development style (Lake Houston Figure 3) - and a method of development that endeavors to
preserve the older tree canopy while constructing
new homes (i.e., The Woodlands Figure 4)
23Residential Grid
Image from Wernher Kruten, http//www.photovault.
com
24Can a Ratio Be Found?
25Thermal Contrast
- Figures 5, The Woodlands, and 6, Lake Houston
depict the strong contrast in surface temperature
between these two development styles - Notice the difference in thermal emissivity
- This research will explore an optimal ratio of
development to tree cover that might be necessary
to obtain a leveling effect with concern to the
urban heat island phenomenon
?
26Landsat Thermal Images
Figure 5
Figure 6
These images are from the 2000 Landsat ETM
Thermal band 6. Figure 5 is the tree
canopy preserving development of The Woodlands,
and Figure 6 is the popular clear before
construction Method of a residential area near
Lake Houston
27Expectations
- My investigation on optimal ratios between
micro-urban heat islands (impervious built-up
surfaces) and vegetation cover could reveal a
guide for future developers with a concern toward
mitigating the negative effects of the urban heat
island phenomenon - This research will also provide a scientific
basis for urban planning programs related to the
selection of cooler roofing and pavement
materials, the planting of trees, local building
design codes, land development style and
practices
Image from The Houstonian, http//www.houstonian.
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28References
- Aniello, C., Morgan, K., Busbey, A., and Newland,
L., 1995. Mapping micro-urban heat islands
using Landsat TM and a GIS. Computers
Geosciences, 21(8) pp. 965-969. - Bornsteins, R. and Lin, Q., 2000. Urban heat
islands and summertime convective thunderstorms
in Atlanta Three case studies. Atmospheric
Environment, 34, 507-516. - Chandler, T.J., Cooke, R.U., and Douglas, I.,
1976. Physical problems of the urban
environment. Geographical Journal, 142, pp.
57-80. - EPA, 2000. 1997-1999 8-Hour Ozone County and
Site Design Values. U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency Website, http//www.epa.gov/ttn/
naaqs/ozone/areas/state/aq/aq99site.htm,
September 6, 2000. - Francois, C. and Ottle, C., 1996. Atmospheric
corrections in the thermal infrared global and
water vapor dependent split-window algorithms-
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34, 457-470. - Gallo, K.P. and Tarpley, J.D., 1996. The
comparison of vegetation index and surface
temperature composites for urban heat island
analysis. International Journal of Remote
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Physical Geography. London Edward Arnold. - Henry, J.A., Dicks, S.E., Wetterqvist, O.F., and
Roguski, S.J., 1989. Comparison of satellite,
ground-based, and modeling techniques for
analyzing the urban heat island. Photogrammetry
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Miwa, T., 2000. Relations between surface
temperature and air temperature on a local scale
during winter nights. Journal of Applied
Meteorology, 39, 1570-1579. - Kustas, W., Norman J. M., Anderson M.C., French
A. N., 2003. Estimating subpixel surface
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index-radiometric temperature relationship.
Remote Sensing of Environment, 85, 429-440. - Lo, C.P., and Quattrochi, D.A., 2003. Land-Use
and Land-Cover Change, Urban Heat Island
Phenomenon, and Health Implications A Remote
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Remote Sensing, 69(9) pp. 1053-1063. - Lo, C.P., Quattrochi, Dale A., and Luvall, J.C.,
1997. Application of high-resolution thermal
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urban heat island using finite elements.
Mathematics and Computers in Simulation, 35 pp.
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29References
- Montavez, J.P., Rodriguez, A. and Jiménez, J.I.,
2000. A study of the urban heat island of
Granada. International Journal of Climatology,
20(8), 899-911. - Nichol, J.E., 1996. High-resolution surface
temperature pattern related to urban morphology
in a tropical city a satellite-based study.
Journal of Applied Meteorology, 35 135-146. - Owen, T. W. Carlson, T.N. and Gillies, R.R.,
1998. An assessment of satellite remotely
sensed land cover parameters in quantitatively
describing the climatic effect of urbanization.
International Journal of Remote Sensing, 19,
1663-1681. - Prata, A.J., 1993. Land surface temperatures
derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution
Radiometer and the Along-track scanning
Radiometer 1, theory. Journal of Geophysical
Research, 98, 16689-16702. - Price, J.C., 1984. Land surface temperature
measurements from the split window channels of
the NOAA 7 AVHRR. Journal of Geophysical
Research, 89, 7231-7237. - Quattrochi, D.A., Luvall, J.C., Rickman, D.L.,
Estes, Jr., M.G., Laymon, C.A., and Howell, B.F.,
2000. A Decision Support Information System for
urban Landscape Management Using Thermal Infrared
Data. Photogrammetric Engineering Remote
Sensing, 66(10) pp. 1195-1207. - Roth, M., Oke, T.R., and Emery, W.J., 1989.
Satellite derived urban heat islands from three
coastal cities and the utilization of such data
in urban climatology. International Journal of
Remote Sensing, 10, 1699-1720. - Sakakibara, Y., 1996. A Numerical Study of the
Effect of Urban Geometry upon the Surface Energy
Budget. Atmospheric Environment, 30(3)
487-496. - Streutker, D.R., 2002. A remote sensing study
of the urban heat island of Houston, Texas.
International Journal of Remote Sensing, 23,
2595-2608. - Streutker, D.R., 2003. Satellite-measured
growth of the urban heat island of Houston,
Texas. Remote Sensing of Environment, 85,
282-289. - Vidal, A., 1991. Atmospheric and emissivity
correction of land surface temperature measured
from satellite using ground measurements or
satellite data. International Journal of Remote
Sensing, 12, 2449-2460. - Voogt, J.A., and Oke, T.R., 1997. Complete
Urban Surface Temperatures. Journal of Applied
Meteorology, 36(9), 1117-1132. - Yamshita, S. and Sekine, K., 1990. Some studies
on the Earths surface conditions relating to the
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Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing,
66(8) 967-980.
30Downtown Houston Questions
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