Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 12 (2013) 426434

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Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ uf ug
Impacts of land use and topography on the cooling effect of green
areas on surrounding urban areas
Shuko Hamada
a,
, Takafumi Tanaka
b
, Takeshi Ohta
b
a
Hydrospheric Atmospheric Research Center, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8601, Japan
b
Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8601, Japan
a r t i c l e i n f o
Keywords:
Cooling effect
Remote sensing
Surface temperature
Urban green area
a b s t r a c t
Few studies have examined the inuence of land use and terrain on the cooling effect of green areas
on surrounding urban areas. We investigated the spatial distribution of the cooling effect of green areas
on surrounding urban areas in Heiwa Park, Nagoya, central Japan, by applying surface temperature (T
s
)
information obtained from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reection Radiometer (ASTER)
image data. The cooling effect was found to extend in many directions into the urban areas. The spatial
distribution of T
s
showed that commercial areas interrupted the ow of park cooling, whereas other
types of urban areas expanded park cooling more effectively. We hypothesise that this was the result
of differences in geometric and thermal properties and anthropogenic heat release between commercial
and other areas. The spatial distribution of T
s
also reected the effects of topography on park cooling. The
greenareaat our studysitewas locatedonahill, andthedownwardslopeandvalleyterraininsidethepark
increased the cooling effect towards the surrounding urban areas. To improve the thermal environment
of urban areas and the comfort levels of residents, effective utilisation of the cooling effect of green areas
should be incorporated into urban designs that consider the effects of land use and topography.
2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Urbanisationinuences many environmental factors. The urban
heat island (UHI) is a climatic effect caused by anthropogenic heat
release (Voogt and Oke, 2003), air pollution(Stlpnagel et al., 1990;
Oke, 2011), and articial surfaces such as concrete and asphalt in
the place of soil and vegetation.
According to the Third Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), average temperatures have increased 23

C in the
metropolitancities of Japaninthe last 100years, partiallyas a result
of UHI, whereas the average global temperature has risen0.7

C/100
years since the nineteenth century (IPCC, 2001). Thermal environ-
ments in urban areas are expected to become more severe as the
average temperature in Japan continues to rise (CCSR, 2004). These
changes will create an increase in the demand for energy for cool-
ing during the summer. In addition, a warmer climate will affect
human health and lead to more deaths associated with hyperther-
mia (Nakai et al., 1999; Stott et al., 2004). Therefore, management
and improvement of urban climatic conditions must include urban

Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 52 789 3439; fax: +81 52 789 3439.
E-mail addresses: yamashu 0122@tg.commufa.jp (S. Hamada),
d43034a@cc.nagoya-u.ac.jp (T. Tanaka), takeshi@agr.nagoya-u.ac.jp (T. Ohta).
planning that considers heat island mitigation (e.g. Blanco et al.,
2009).
Urban green areas mitigate UHI effects through the conversion
of incident energy from the sun to latent heat by evapotranspira-
tion fromvegetated surfaces (Fryd et al., 2011). Bowler et al. (2010)
reportedthat groundmeasurements at urbanparks exhibitedlower
air temperatures (T
a
) than those of surrounding urban areas. Based
on26 datasets from16 studies, the average decrease inthe daytime
temperature was determined to be 0.711.16

C, whereas the dif-

ference at night averaged 0.841.45

C based on 12 datasets across

seven studies. However, the cooling of urban green areas depends
on park size; larger parks result in greater surface temperature (T
s
)
differences between urban and park areas (Cao et al., 2010). More-
over, land use/land cover and the conguration of the urban green
area also affect cooling. Specically, woody vegetation results in
the highest temperature difference (Zhou et al., 2011). Further-
more, evenly distributed woody vegetation reduces T
s
more than
clustered vegetation because the former provides more shade for
surrounding non-vegetatedsurfaces (Zhouet al., 2011). Park shape,
representedbythetotal perimeter arounda park, andparkarea also
affect the cooling inside the park (Cao et al., 2010).
For UHI mitigation by urban planning, a good understanding
of the cooling effect of green areas on surrounding urban areas
is essential, particularly given that the residents of these urban
areas are directly affected by adverse climatic conditions. Hamada
1618-8667/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2013.06.008
S. Hamada et al. / Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 12 (2013) 426434 427
and Ohta (2010) conducted long-term ground measurements in
Nagoya City, Japan, and reported that the cool air generated over
anurbanparkadvected200500mintothesurroundingresidential
area and that this effect was more pronounced during the sum-
mer. Cool air generated in green areas advects over surrounding,
windward built-up areas (Eliasson and Upmanis, 2000; Fryd et al.,
2011). These results clearly suggest that the cooling effect of green
areas can extend to surrounding urban areas and improve the ther-
mal environment. However, this extension depends on topography
and surrounding structures in addition to wind conditions (Fryd
et al., 2011). Many parameters of erected structures, such as den-
sity, height, arrangement, and width, signicantly affect airow,
whereas prevailing wind along roads and open spaces may direct
cool air fromgreenareas into surrounding urbanareas (Zoulia et al.,
2009; HsiehandWu, 2012). EliassonandUpmanis (2000) examined
the inuence of topography and reported that slopes blocked air-
ow from a park. However, aside from these few studies, little has
been reported on the impacts of land use and terrain on the cooling
effect of green areas on surrounding urban areas despite the fact
that the uniformity of an urban area, including the complex mosaic
of buildings, roads, rivers, and slopes, should affect the extent of
the cooling effect. Therefore, further understanding of the spatial
distribution of cooling effect is required.
Thermal remote sensing has been used over urban areas to
assess the extent of urban heat islands (Voogt and Oke, 2003).
Hoyano et al. (2007) showed that night heat capacity mapping
missions (HCMMs) can identify areas of cold airow that stream
down valleys into rural areas, and simulate the T
a
distribution
in a region. Yan (2006), using Thermal Emission and Reection
Radiometer (ASTER) data analysis, reported that the cool spots
in green areas appeared to extend into neighbourhoods in urban
areas. These studies suggest that the advection of cold air gener-
ated by urban green areas should be analysed using remote sensing
data.
In the present study, we investigated the spatial distribution of
the cooling effect of a green area on surrounding urban areas using
T
s
information obtained from ASTER data in a metropolitan city
in central Japan. We conducted tests that focused on the follow-
ing factors: the mechanism through which the cooling effect of a
green area extends to surrounding urban areas, the type of land use
within an urban area that contributes most/least effectively to the
coolingeffects of anurbangreenarea, andtheeffects of topographic
characteristics on the spatial distribution of the cooling effects of a
green area.
Methods
Site description
The study was conducted in Heiwa Park, situated in the east-
ern part of the city of Nagoya in central Japan (N35

10

12

,
E136

58

46

). Nagoya is the fourth most populous urban area in

Japan, with a population of approximately 2.2 million. Its climate
is temperate humid with four distinct seasons. According to the
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (2009), the annual
average T
a
and annual precipitation in the city from 1971 to 2000
were 15.4

C and 1564.6mm, respectively. More than one-fourth of

theannual precipitationfalls intheearlysummer rainyseasonfrom
mid-June to mid-July, which is followed by a hot, humid summer
ending in August. The highest and lowest average monthly temper-
atures are27.3

Cand4.3

CinAugust andJanuary, respectively. The

highest and lowest monthly average relative humidity is 76% and
60% in July and March, respectively. From June to August, the pre-
vailing winds are from the SSE; the rest of the year, the prevailing
winds are from the NNW/NW.
Heiwa Park is situatedona hill witha valley onits southernside,
as showninFig. 1b. The maximumelevationgapbetweenthe valley
and the hill is approximately 50m(Fig. 1c). The park covers 147ha.
Natural groundcover accounts for 70% of the total area, which is
primarily forest, while cemeteries and roads make up the remain-
der (Fig. 1d). The natural ground cover consists of forest (62%), lawn
(15%), agricultural land (10%), pond (6%), and bare soil (7%), accord-
ing to the land surface classication map. Most of the forest area
is a secondary evergreendeciduous mixed forest with promenade
and lawn areas used for recreational space (Fig. 2a). The cemetery
area consists of gravel- or soil-covered narrow spaces partitioned
by roads (Fig. 2b) and is located in the northern part of the park,
separated from the green area. Dwellings, public buildings, and
commercial areas surround the park. In the dwelling area, many
houses are wooden two-story structures with hedges or small gar-
dens (Fig. 2c), while others are houses and apartment buildings of
more than three stories constructed of ferroconcrete (Fig. 2d). The
main public buildings include ferroconcrete schools and hospitals
with open spaces (Fig. 2e). The commercial area consists of densely
clustered ferroconcrete buildings and includes roads with usually
heavy trafc (Fig. 2f).
Imaging data
ASTER, an advanced multi-spectral imager deployed on NASAs
Terra platform, comprises three spectral bands in the visible near-
infrared(VNIR), sixbands intheshortwaveinfrared(SWIR), andve
bands in the thermal infrared (TIR) regions with spatial resolutions
of 15, 30, and 90m, respectively (Yamaguchi et al., 1998). Its data
are often used to analyse urban heat islands (e.g. Cao et al., 2010;
Nichol et al., 2009). In this study region, ASTERdata are more acces-
sible in the summer and are preferable to other available satellite
images with higher resolution. Therefore, we used the ASTER data,
which included T
s
with 90-m spatial resolution and a relative dig-
ital elevation model (DEM) with 30-m spatial resolution. Surface
temperatures were derived using the temperature and emissiv-
ity separation (TES) algorithm (Gillespie et al., 1998). Radiometric
and atmospheric rectication and atmospheric corrections were
applied to the ASTER data corrected to a Universal Transverse Mer-
cator coordinate system using the nearest-neighbour algorithm
before generating each atmospherically corrected quantity. The
acquired ASTER T
s
data were of good quality and there was no
cloud coverage in our study area in the daytime at 10:53 JST on
10 July 2000, 10:45 JST on 25 May 2004, 10:45 JST on 3 August
2006, 10:45JSTon4September 2006, and10:45JSTon9September
2008. Night-time readings were at 22:00JSTon13September 2010,
and 22:00 JST on 14 July 2011. We used ASTER DEM products
for observation at 10:45 JST on 3 August 2006. Weather condi-
tions at the time of satellite observation were obtained (Table 1)
using hourly averaged data fromthe Nagoya Observation Station at
the Japan Meteorological Agency, which is located approximately
1.2km south of the southern edge of Heiwa Park. Wind speed was
13ms
1
except on25May 2004, whenit was exceptionally windy
(Table 1). Wind direction was mainly N-W.
We used a land surface classication map produced by Kato and
Yamaguchi (2007), which was generated from VNIR (Level 2B05V;
15m spatial resolution) of ASTER observed at 10:55 JST on 10 July
2000, and Detailed Digital Information, which are digital data of
land use with 10-m spatial resolution published by the Geospatial
Information Authority of Japan in 1997 (Kato and Yamaguchi,
2007). The land-use map for urban areas was classied by Detailed
Digital Information, and the green area was further classied
into vegetation types such as forest, low tree, or lawn using the
spectral pattern of band reectance with the minimum distance
method from ASRER data (Kato and Yamaguchi, 2007). In this
study area, land use did not change dramatically, although some
428 S. Hamada et al. / Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 12 (2013) 426434
Fig. 1. (a) Study area located in Nagoya, Japan. (b) Elevation map for the study area. Thick line represents the perimeter of Heiwa Park. (c) Elevation prole of the AA

section
in (b) (closed triangle with a solid line) and averaged elevation with standard deviation (opened triangle with dash line). (d) Land surface classication map for the study
area. (d) Locations of the photographs in Fig. 2, represented by black dots.
construction had occurred since 1997. Therefore, we determined
that the land-use map was appropriate for our study.
Data analysis
T
s
distributions in Heiwa Park and buffer zones around the park
We examined T
s
distributions in and around Heiwa Park to
determine whether the cooling effect of the park on the surround-
ingurbanarea was reectedinthe remote-sensingdata. Inthe park,
T
s
was averaged in all areas and every type of land use was exam-
ined. To investigate the T
s
distribution around the park, the area
within a given distance fromthe park, known as a buffer zone, was
determined. After that, T
s
was averagedinthezoningarea. For these
analyses we used the T
s
data of ASTER and the land surface classi-
cation map. Buffer zones of 50m were extended around the park
boundary, from 050m, 50100m, 150200m, etc. to 450500m,
and the average T
s
was determined in every zone, except for the
green area containing forest, lawn, and agricultural land. Finally,
the correlations between T
s
and the buffer zone distances were
examined for all obtained T
s
data.
Spatial extent of the cooling effect of Heiwa Park
Detection of the extent of the cooling effect. We estimated the extent
of the cooling effect on the surrounding urban areas from the T
s
Table 1
Summary of hourly meteorological conditions at 11:00 JST and 22:00 JST.
Date Air temperature
(

C)
Relative
humidity (%)
Wind speed
(ms
1
)
Wind direction Condition Solar radiation integrated
until 11:00 JST (MJ/m
2
)
Day
(10:4510:53)
July 10, 2000 30.7 40 2.1 WNW Clear 10.66
May 25, 2004 23.8 37 5.6 WNW Clear 11.99
August 3, 2006 30.3 57 1.8 NNW Fine 8.24
September 4, 2006 28.8 49 1.1 WSW Fine 8.5
September 9, 2008 27.9 37 2.5 N Clear 9.12
Night (22:00) September 13, 2010 26.3 51 2.4 NNW Fine
July 14, 2011 26.3 73 3.5 SSE Fine
S. Hamada et al. / Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 12 (2013) 426434 429
Fig. 2. Pictures of each land surface area in Heiwa Park and surrounding urban area. (a) Lawn (near side) and forest area (far side), (b) cemetery (near side) and forest area
(far side), (c) low-rise dwelling area, (d) high-rise dwelling area, (e) public building area, and (f) commercial area.
distribution of ASTER data and compared these results to the land
use and terrain.
The analysis of the spatial extent of the parks cooling effect was
applied to the T
s
data for 10 July 2000, 25 May 2004, 3 August 2006,
4 September 2006, and 9 September 2008. We excluded the data
for the night-time images of 14 July 2011 and 13 September 2010
because the extent of the cooling effect could not be detected from
these data due to the small differences in T
s
between Heiwa Park
and surrounding areas (see Fig. 3).
Hamada and Ohta (2010) showed that the cooling effect of
Heiwa Park extended to the surrounding urban area based on T
a
measurements on the ground. The T
a
increased gradually as the
distance from the park increased and the effective distance was
200300m (Hamada and Ohta, 2010). We predicted that a similar
tendencywouldbeobservedwhenT
s
datawereusedinmanydirec-
tions (as seen in Fig. 3). We extracted three phases of temperature
variation with distance, including the initial temperature increase
around the park boundary, continuously increasing temperature,
and the end of the temperature increase. The rst phase, known as
the edge effect, was detected near the boundary; T
s
changed dra-
matically between the green and urban areas. In the second phase,
farther from the boundary, T
s
continuously increased until reach-
ing a maximum, which we determined to be the third phase, or
limit point. The extent of the cooling effect was dened as fromthe
edge of the green space to the limit point of the cooling effect of
the park. The edge and the latitudinal and longitudinal limit points
were extracted fromthermal imaging data. To detect and calculate
the edge and limit points of the cooling effect, image ltering was
performed.
For edge detection, the secondderivative measure, Laplacian(Qi
et al., 2008) was applied; this can be used to detect rapid changes in
the intensity of an image. The Laplacian
2
f(x,y) of an image with
pixel values f(x,y) is given by

2
f (x, y) =

2
f (x, y)
x
2
+

2
f (x, y)
y
2
, (1)
Fig. 3. Correlations between distance from Heiwa Park and Ts of different days during (a) daytime and (b) night-time. Ts of Heiwa Park averaged for all categories inside the
park.
430 S. Hamada et al. / Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 12 (2013) 426434
and the following lter can be used to calculate the Laplacian:
Laplacian :

1 1 1
1 8 1
1 1 1

(2)
In this study, the T
s
data were stored in each pixel. The digital
number (DN) values around the boundary of the park were high
where the variation in T
s
was large. We extracted the boundary
edges in which pixel values were more than 10 and determined
that the edge could be established over nearly the entire boundary
through all scenes. The pixels within 90m of the boundary (one
pixel on each side of the boundary) were dened as the edge of the
boundary. A Laplacian lter and the edge-detection method were
applied to the T
s
data for all scenes in the same manner.
To detect the limit point and calculate the extent of the cooling
effect of the park, a Prewitt gradient lter (Mokji and Abu-Bakar,
2004) was used. This lter subtracts the DNvalue at one pixel from
that at the next pixel to determine the change in the DN value at
successive pixels in a particular direction. The gradient f(x,y) of an
image with pixel values f(x,y) is given by
f (x, y) =
f (x, y)
x
+
f (x, y)
y
u
y
, (3)
and the following Prewitt gradient lter can be used to calculate
the gradient:
Horixontal direction :

1 0 1
1 0 1
1 0 1

(4)
Vertical direction :

1 1 1
0 0 0
1 1 1

(5)
This calculation was applied latitudinally to the northern and
southern sides and longitudinally to the eastern and western sides.
In this manner, the gradients of T
s
were decided. The pixels adja-
cent to the edges or the boundary of the park continue to be
positive (negative) longitudinally (latitudinally); these pixels were
extracted and considered indicative of the extent of the cooling
effect of the park.
Effects of landuse onthe spatial extent of park cooling inanurbanarea.
We overlaid the classication map with the gure that showed the
extent of park cooling to investigate the spatial extent of the cool-
ing effect for surrounding urban areas. In addition, we examined
the variation in T
s
with distance expressed by the buffer zone from
Heiwa Park for various types of land use. Next, we examined signif-
icant differences among land use types for the variation in T
s
with
distance using analysis of variance (ANOVA) to clarify which type
of land use contributed least/most effectively to the cooling effect
of the park.
Effects of topographic characteristics on the spatial distribution of park
cooling. We examined the effects of topography on the spatial dis-
tribution of park cooling. Heiwa Park is situated on a hill inclined
downwards towards the surrounding urban areas in various direc-
tions. A valley lies between two hills running east to west in the
southern forest area of the park and the decrease in elevation with
distance from the park differs from the average value (Fig. 1c). The
opposite site to the valley, which is located on the east side in the
southern forest area, is of higher elevation than the other areas of
the park. These topographic irregularities were thought to affect
the spatial distribution of park cooling. Therefore, we created an
elevation prole from DEM data that expressed these irregulari-
ties as AA

sections (Fig. 1b) and examined the variation in the T

s
prole.
Results
T
s
distributions inside and around Heiwa Park
Table 2shows the average T
s
for different types of landuse/cover
inside the park. The T
s
of the green areas (forest, lawn, and agricul-
tural land) in the daytime were lower than all other categories,
except ponds. Among the green areas, the temperature was lower
in the forest than above the lawn and agricultural land. The T
s
differences were smaller at night than during the daytime.
Fig. 3 shows the T
s
distribution around the park using buffer
zones. T
s
was lower in the park than in the surrounding urban areas
and gradually increased with distance fromthe park for all daytime
data. In the daytime, T
s
was highest on 10 July 2000, which showed
thesecondhighest measurement of solar radiationintegrationuntil
11:00 JST (Table 1). Although the integrated solar radiation on 25
May 2004 was higher, the T
s
did not rise signicantly on that day.
Night-time trends differed greatly from those in the daytime, and
the T
s
averaged over the entire park was nearly the same as that
in the surrounding urban area. Inside the park on 13 September
2010 and 14 July 2011, the ranges of T
s
were higher in the ceme-
tery area than in the green areas (Table 2) and in the other land-use
categories inthe surroundingurbanareas (Fig. 3). This nonuniform-
ity and small range in the entire night-time dataset inuenced the
results.
Effects of land use in the urban area on the cooling effect of Heiwa
Park
We estimated the extent of the cooling effect on the surround-
ing urban areas from the spatial distribution of T
s
and compared
the results to the land surface classication map. Fig. 4 shows the
results from this overlay for the north, south, east, and west on
the land surface classication map to illustrate land use around
the park. The cooling effect in the park extended in all directions
throughout the analysis. The wind direction during the observation
time on4September 2006was WSW, whichdifferedfromthe other
days (N-W; Table 1). However, the effect of the differences in wind
direction on the results was not clear. In the areas east and west
of the park, which comprise mainly low-rise dwellings, the extent
of the cooling effect varied daily. However, the land use is compar-
atively complex to the north and south of the park, yet the same
trends and several of their characteristics were evident through all
5 days. Mid- and high-rise dwelling areas and commercial areas on
the north side of the park (Fig. 2d) interrupted the extent of the
cooling effect on the days examined. Similarly, to the south of the
park, a commercial area with a heavily travelled road (Fig. 2f) inter-
rupted the extent of the cooling effect on all days sampled. Thus,
the park cooling to the north and south of the park was reduced
compared to that to the east and west.
These results show that specic land-use types appeared to
interfere with the extent of park cooling and to affect the spa-
tial distribution of the cooling effect. Therefore, we examined the
correlations between distance from Heiwa Park and T
s
for various
types of land use (Fig. 5). The temperatures of all land-use types
were lowest near the park. However, as the distance fromthe park
increased, increases in T
s
were higher in commercial areas than in
other land-use types, suggesting that commercial areas critically
interfered with the cooling effect. To test for signicant differences
in T
s
between commercial areas and the other land uses on all
analysis days, we examined the data for each land-use category
S. Hamada et al. / Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 12 (2013) 426434 431
Table 2
Average Ts and standard deviation over different land-use/cover types classied for Heiwa Park.
Land use Ts (daytime;

C) Night
10 July 2000 26 May 2004 3 August 2006 4 September
2006
9 September
2008
13 September
2010
14 July 2011
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
Forest 37.2 2.7 31.9 3.5 31.0 2.1 33.1 2.3 31.9 2.5 24.6 0.5 27.4 1.0
Lawn 39.0 2.5 33.7 3.4 32.2 2.0 34.8 2.4 33.8 2.6 24.9 0.7 28.4 1.3
Agricultural land 38.1 2.8 32.9 3.5 31.4 2.3 33.9 3.0 32.4 2.7 24.5 0.7 27.3 0.9
Pond 34.3 2.3 29.7 3.4 29.2 1.7 32.7 2.1 29.7 1.7 26.9 0.7 29.4 1.4
Bare soil 39.3 2.5 34.4 3.4 32.5 2.1 35.2 2.4 34.0 2.6 25.0 0.7 28.3 1.4
Cemetery/road 41.0 1.7 35.5 2.2 33.5 1.4 36.2 1.8 35.9 1.9 25.4 0.4 29.1 0.8
Building 40.6 1.6 34.8 2.6 33.4 1.6 35.5 2.4 35.3 1.8 25.2 0.4 28.4 1.2
Fig. 4. Extent of the cooling effect of Heiwa Park on (a) 10 July 2000, (b) 25 May 2004, (c) 3 August 2006, (d) 4 September 2006, and (e) 9 September 2008. Blue squares
represent the extent of the cooling effect; each square represents an area of 90m
2
. Black squares represent the edges of the obtained Ts and illustrate the extent of variation
in these readings. (For interpretation of the references to color in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of the article.)
432 S. Hamada et al. / Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 12 (2013) 426434
Fig. 5. Correlation between distance from Heiwa Park and Ts of six different land
uses in 10 July 2000. Error bars present the standard error.
compared to the commercial area using an ANOVA for the 5 days
(Fig. 6). T
s
was larger inthe commercial areas thaninthe other land-
use categories through all scenes at a distance of 50250m. This
tendency was most pronounced on 10 July 2000, when the effec-
tive distance reached 350m (Fig. 6). Similar results were obtained
on the other days, but the signicance of the commercial areas was
low compared to that on 10 July 2000.
Contrary to expectations, mid- and high-rise buildings showed
no signicant differences in terms of their effect on cooling com-
pared to the other land-use types. The tendencies in land-use types
other thancommercial areas variedbyday. At night, fewdifferences
were observed among land-use types.
Effects of topographic characteristics on the spatial distribution of
park cooling
Fig. 7 shows the results of the T
s
prole of a section running
along the hilly southern area of the park. The valley lies on the A
Fig. 7. The proles (solid line and closed shapes) of elevation (a; triangle) and Ts
(bf: circle) of the AA

section in Fig. 1b with averaged data of the buffer zones

(dashed line and open shapes). Ts proles are on (b) 10 July 2000, (c) 25 May 2004,
(d) 3 August 2006, (e) 4 September 2006, and (f) 9 September 2008. Bars indicate
standard deviation.
Fig. 6. The signicant differences in Ts between the commercial area and the other land-use categories. The line indicates that the Ts of the commercial area is highest in the
distance zone with signicant differences (P<0.05 in ANOVA; black line) or low signicant differences (P0.05; grey line). , land-use categories whose Ts values are not
signicantly different from that of the commercial area (B, bare soil; L, low-rise dwelling; M, mid/high-rise dwelling; P, public building; R, road).
S. Hamada et al. / Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 12 (2013) 426434 433
(west) side and hills are on the A

(east) side. The elevation proles

comprise redrawn data of the day indicated in Fig. 1c. As indi-
catedinFig. 7, temperatures increasedfrominsidetheparktowards
urban areas. However, there were differences in the variation in T
s
between the valley (A) and hill (A

) sides. On the valley side, the

variation in T
s
along AA

was gentle and T

s
was lower in the urban
areas than the average T
s
. Conversely, on the hill side, T
s
increased
sharply inside the park. These tendencies were shown throughout
all analysis days. The land uses of the two sides were similar. There-
fore, differences among topographical characteristics contribute to
the variation in T
s
, suggesting that the valley effectively expanded
the cooling effect of the park.
Discussion
Theoretical implications
The results of the T
s
analysis generally agree withprevious stud-
ies basedonT
a
andshowthat green-areacoolingaffects thethermal
environment in surrounding urban areas (Stlpnagel et al., 1990;
Shashua-Bar and Hoffman, 2000; Hamada and Ohta, 2010). More-
over, the spatial distribution of T
s
in this study area showed that
the cooling effect of the park extended in many directions into
the surrounding urban areas. All land-use types were affected by
park cooling. In terms of the role of land use inside the park, forest
contributed most to the cooling effect, as demonstrated in previ-
ous studies via conversion of solar radiation into latent heat (Taha,
1997). However, these tendencies depended on time of day and
were more pronounced in the daytime. This is because the differ-
ences in T
s
between the park and the surrounding urban areas were
signicantly larger in the daytime, as was also reported in previ-
ous studies based on T
a
(Chang et al., 2007; Chen and Wong, 2006;
Hamada and Ohta, 2010).
The land-use types in the urban areas also affected the extent
of park cooling. The commercial area was a critical factor in terms
of interrupting the cooling extension. The commercial areas in this
studyarea consistedmainlyof denseferroconcretebuildings of var-
ious heights, and roads, often with heavy trafc. Oke (1982, 2011)
reported that dense buildings lead to multiple reection points,
resulting in greater absorption of solar radiation. In addition, they
provide windshelter, whichreduces heat loss by convection. Build-
ing materials often have thermal properties with a greater capacity
to store heat, which is difcult to release. Furthermore, anthro-
pogenic heat from buildings and road trafc also affect the energy
balance in an area. This leads to an estimated 13

C augmentation
of T
a
(Fan and Sailor, 2005), which is stored in the surfaces of arti-
cial objects (Ichinose et al., 1999). The ratio of storage heat to net
radiation is larger in commercial areas than in residential areas,
whereas sensible heat is larger in residential areas than in com-
mercial areas in the daytime, as determined using remote sensing
data analysis (Kato and Yamaguchi, 2007). The surface geometries
of commercial areas, thermal properties of buildings, and anthro-
pogenic heat are believed to cause the highest T
s
values, which
affect the extent of park cooling. Conversely, mid- and high-rise
building areas yielded no signicant differences in variation in T
s
as distance from the park increased, although these areas inter-
rupted park cooling to the north (Fig. 4). These results illustrate the
difculty in identifying the effects of mid- and high-rise building
areas on urban cooling. Furthermore, few differences in T
s
were
observed at night among the land-use types in urban areas. T
s
val-
ues were lower at night than in the daytime; therefore, differences
were difcult to detect.
Regarding the effects of topography, T
s
gradually increased
along the valley in the park towards urban areas in contrast to
the variation observed along the hillside, thus expanding the parks
coolingeffect. Horikoshi (2006) conductedmobile andxedground
observations of T
a
and wind speed and direction in August 2005
along this valley, and found that in the early morning cool air
owed along the street down the valley to approximately 1km
from the boundary of Heiwa Park in the urban areas. Hoyano et al.
(2007) showed that the night-time HCMMscene can identify areas
in which cold airstreams ow down valleys into rural areas. Yan
(2006) reported that cool spots in urban green areas detected using
ASTERdata appearedto extendinto the neighbourhood, suggesting
advection of cool air along the slope. Similarly, cool air generated in
the forest area of the park likely streams out to the urban areas and
along the valley slope. Furthermore, we showed that the cooling
effect of the park expanded effectively along the valley. There have
been few reports on the impacts of topographic characteristics on
the cooling effect of greenareas, so our results will helpto elucidate
the mechanisms of cooling by parks.
We showed that T
s
values varied along the valley and hill
throughout all analysis days. Conversely, the effect of prevailing
wind direction on the extent of the cooling effect was not clear, as
previously reported based on continuous observations of T
a
in the
same park (Hamada and Ohta, 2010). However, previous reports
suggested that wind carries the cool air from the park to the adja-
cent built-up area (Eliasson and Upmanis, 2000; Zoulia et al., 2009),
which is inconsistent with our results. Given that the elevation of
the park is higher than that of the surrounding urban areas, the
wind may ow in different directions from the prevailing wind
direction in and around the park due to the various topographic
characteristics.
Limitations
We employedsatellite image data toexamine the cooling effects
of a green area, which included the following limitations that
should be addressed in further applications: (1) Because the obser-
vation times of ASTER data were approximately 11:00 and 22:00
JST, the cooling effect of the park at other times was not examined.
Moreover, thespatial distributionof parkcoolingwas analysedfor a
limited number of days. Park cooling intensity shows diurnal vari-
ation (Potchter et al., 2006; Sugawara et al., 2006). Hamada and
Ohta (2010) reported that the park-cooling intensity in Heiwa Park
was pronounced at 15:0017:00 and varied with weather condi-
tions. To conrm the extent of park cooling and the effect of land
use and topography qualitatively, additional case studies should
include more times and various weather conditions when thermal
image data are available for these times. (2) The effects of using
90-m spatial resolution ASTER data on the extent of park cooling
shouldbeexamined. OneASTERpixel aroundtheboundaryof apar-
ticular land-use type involves thermal characteristics of adjacent
types, which introduces uncertainty. Urban canopies are complex
at small scales, and thermal images with higher spatial resolution
should be used for a more precise description of thermal property
distribution in urban areas.
Conclusions
Understanding the mechanism of the cooling effect of urban
green areas is important for urban planning to enable greater
control over thermal environments. We employed T
s
information
obtained from ASTER data to investigate the spatial distribution of
the cooling effect of Heiwa Park on surrounding urban areas.
By examining the spatial distribution of T
s
, the cooling effect
was shown to extend into the urban area in many directions. How-
ever, we detected spatial deviation in the extent of cooling, which
showed several common characteristics throughout the analysis
days. These tendencies were attributed to differences in land use.
434 S. Hamada et al. / Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 12 (2013) 426434
Commercial areas interrupted the extent of park cooling and the
patterns differed from other land uses. We suggest that these
results reect differences in the geometric and thermal properties,
in addition to anthropogenic heat release, between commercial
and the other areas. Moreover, the spatial distribution of T
s
was
affected by topography. T
s
gradually increased along the valley in
the park towards urban areas with no dramatic change inside the
park as seen along the hillside. That is, the cooling effect of the park
extended into the urban areas. This result suggests that the val-
ley effectively transfers the cool air generated in the park to the
surrounding urban areas.
It is important to utilise the cooling effect of green areas effec-
tively to improve the thermal environment and the comfort levels
of the residents of urban areas. However, the location of commer-
cial areas adjacent to green areas greatly inuences this cooling
effect. Suitable topographical utilisation would help to expand the
cooling effect. To conrmthe effects of land use and topography on
the cooling effect of green areas qualitatively, additional case stud-
ies are needed. Our ndings help to elucidate the characteristics
of park cooling to aid researchers and planners in designing urban
spaces around parks to mitigate urban heat islands.
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