United States Department of Transportation
i
Using Thermal Remote Sensing to Quantify the Impact of Traffic on Urban Heat Islands during COVID [Research Brief]
-
2023-04-01
-
[PDF-826.00 KB]
Details:
-
Creators:
-
Corporate Creators:
-
Corporate Contributors:
-
Subject/TRT Terms:
-
Publication/ Report Number:
-
Resource Type:
-
Geographical Coverage:
-
Corporate Publisher:
-
Abstract:This research explores the impact of transportation on climate change by using remote sensing technology and statistical analysis during the COVID-19 lockdown. The research team used thermal satellite data that measures the intensity of the urban heat island of the Bay Area, the main driver for climate change during the urbanization process. An urban heat island (UHI) is a phenomenon where the metropolitan area has a temperature significantly higher (from 2 to 11°C) than surrounding rural areas. We acquired morning and afternoon MODIS data in the same periods in 2019 before the pandemic and 2020 during the pandemic. Also, we derived in situ meteorological data to build urban surface energy budgets and construct statistical models between net radiation and both extent and intensity of heat dynamics. We built a multi-variable regression model based on the UHI intensity from remote sensing LST data and solar radiation data during 2019 and 2020 with the COVID-19 lockdown. The lockdown was included as a dummy variable in the statistical model to evaluate traffic reduction on the UHI intensity quantitatively. During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, the traffic volume was regulated and reduced by 30–50% according to the UC Berkeley TIMS traffic dataset. Statistical models have been constructed using a dummy variable to indicate the COVID-19 lockdown. We implement this urban heat budget in six counties in Northern California.
-
Format:
-
Collection(s):
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type:
