Monitoring of urban heat island in Shanghai, China, from 1981 to 2010 with satellite data

This paper investigates the urban heat island (UHI) characteristics of Shanghai, China, during 1981-2010 using Landsat thematic mapper/multispectral scanner and moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer satellite data from the perspectives of time and space, with further analysis of the landscape pattern, the urban heat island effect ratio, and formative factors. The results show the following: (1) From the interannual variation, the secondary-medium temperature area and the medium temperature area are the main bodies of Shanghai UHI, accounting for 67.16-83.69 % of the total area, and have a rising trend over time. (2) From the landscape pattern, the secondary-medium temperature area and the medium temperature area have a dominant position over the whole UHI landscape pattern of Shanghai; the relatively high-temperature area gradually decreases, and its dominance over the whole UHI landscape pattern declines. (3) From the spatial distribution, the pattern in which the urban area initially had complete domination has gradually transformed to become primarily urban area centered and other construction land supplemented with rapid urbanization. Rapid increase of the green land in the urban area has to some extent reduced the UHI characteristics of the Shanghai area in recent years.