Publications

Wang, A; Dai, Y; Zhang, MM; Chen, EQ (2025). Exploring the cooling intensity of green cover on urban heat island: A case study of nine main urban districts in Chongqing. SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY, 124, 106299.

Abstract
With the acceleration of urbanization, the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect has become one of the major environmental challenges faced by cities worldwide. This study investigates the cooling effect of green cover across nine urban districts in Chongqing and assesses its impact on the UHI effect. By integrating MODIS and Sentinel-2 data, a Random Forest(RF) model was employed to generate 10-meter resolution UHI data. OLS regression revealed a significant decline in cooling intensity in city centers from 2019 to 2024, with Yuzhong District averaging as low as 0.5, while peripheral districts such as Banan and Beibei maintained values above 0.8. Binomial regression demonstrated a lag effect between cooling intensity and UHI, with an R2 of 0.71, highlighting the temporal interplay between these variables. Scenario analysis under SSP1-2.6 indicates that average AT can be limited to 22 degrees C with sustained green cover, whereas SSP5-8.5 projects temperature increases nearing 28 degrees C, exacerbating thermal stress. Feature importance analysis using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and LightGBM identified Normalized Difference Water Index(NDWI), building density, transportation networks, and population density as the primary drivers of UHI intensity. These findings underscore the critical role of urban greening in mitigating UHI effects and highlight the necessity of integrating green cover strategies into sustainable urban development to enhance climate resilience.

DOI:
10.1016/j.scs.2025.106299

ISSN:
2210-6715