Exploring the relationships of between land surface temperature, ground coverage ratio and building volume density in an urbanized environment

Abstract. The objective of this study is to explore and compare the relationships between urban land surface temperature (LST), ground coverage ratio (GCR) and building volume density (BVD). Landsat ETM+ data of August 2011 and August 2013 are used to estimate the LST for Wuhan, China, metropolitan area, and maps of GCR and BVD are generated using building census data of 2011 and 2013. Our analysis indicates there is a strong linear relationship between LST and GCR, and when GCR is lower, the linear correlation is more prominent, whereas the relationship between LST and BVD is not straightforward, but seems some underlying pattern. The result suggests GCR and BVD provide complementary metrics to the traditionally applied land use/land cover (LULC) for analysing LST quantitatively for surface urban heat island studies using thermal infrared remote sensing in an urbanized environment. This study is of positive significance to understand today’s urban heat island issues, and contributes to the planning work of urban architectural space.