Multi-scale approach to quantify the influence of urban green spaces on urban climate

Literature widely recognize the strong influence of urban green areas in the microclimatic regulation and its potential to mitigate warming in cities. To promote viable actions to climate change adaptation for cities through vegetation and therefore help to palliate the urban heat island effect (UHI) and to reduce health risk during extreme heat episodes requires accurate criteria for each context in its different scales. This study presents a multi-scale approach to quantify the influence of urban green spaces at two different scales: global (Barcelona Metro Area) and detailed (studying the environments of seven specific parks) in the urban continuum of the cities of Gava, Viladecans and Castelldefels. For this purpose, Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 data imagery are analyzed. The study confirms the significance of the NDVI to moderate the LST, as well as the intensity and extent of the cooling effect of the parks. In conclusion, the models and methods applied in this study suggest effective planning measures to moderate UHI.