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Scientia Silvae Sinicae ›› 2021, Vol. 57 ›› Issue (4): 32-42.doi: 10.11707/j.1001-7488.20210404

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Relationship between Patterns of Urban Forest Patches and Their Cooling Effects——A Case Study of Beijing Urban Area

Xiaoting Li1,Tong Li1,Kuanbiao Qiu1,2,Shasha Jiang1,Baoquan Jia1,*   

  1. 1. Research Center of Urban Forestry, National Forestry and Grassland Administration Key Laboratory of Tree Breeding and Cultivation, National Forestry and Grassland Administration Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry Beijing 100091
    2. Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment Nanjing 210042
  • Received:2020-03-09 Online:2021-04-25 Published:2021-05-21
  • Contact: Baoquan Jia

Abstract:

Objective: Urban green area has significant cooling effects on urban heat island, however, urban land area for ecological uses is constantly squeezed, and land area available for increasing green land cover is usually very limited. How to mitigate urban heat island through appropriate configuration of landscapes and plant community structure has become the top priority. This study explores the influence of the patterns of forest blocks, landscape configuration and community composition on cooling effect at finer resolution scales in order to provide a basis for the urban planners and natural resource managers. Method: This paper takes the urban area within 1 km beyond the sixth Ring Road of Beijing as the research area. Land surface temperature was retrieved using the 10th band of Landsat-8 TIRS remote sensing image in September of 2013, and world-view-2 remote sensing image with 0.5 m resolution from August to September, 2013 was used to obtain vegetation information. Then, the cooling effect of urban forest was quantified by using the land surface temperature difference between forest patches and the overall urban city. Four landscape indices at patch level, including patch area, perimeter, perimeter area ratio and shape index, and four landscape indices at landscape level, including tree canopy coverage, mean patch size, patch density and aggregation index, were selected to explore the effects of individual characteristics and spatial configuration of urban forest patches on their cooling effect. At the same time, 398 forest patches were selected by stratified random sampling method to investigate their urban forest structure and analyze the relationship between urban forest community structure and cooling effect. Result: Results showed that the mean land surface temperature in Beijing urban area was 29.86 ℃, and impervious surface area was 30.64 ℃. The mean land surface temperature of tree patches over 1 000 m2 was 28.68 ℃, which was 1.18 ℃ lower than that in urban area, and 1.98 ℃ lower than that in impervious surface area. Among the four landscape indices at the patch level, the patch area and perimeter were significantly negatively correlated with the minimum land surface temperature inside the forest patches(R2=0.43, 0.33), while the correlation between perimeter area ratio and shape index and the minimum land surface temperature inside the forest patch was weak, and they were positively correlated (R2=0.25) and negatively correlated (R2=0.10) respectively. There was a nonlinear relationship between patch density and their cooling effect, the minimum land surface temperature increases with the increase of patch density, but it is opposite when the logarithm of patch density reaches -4.85. The aggregation index was positively correlated with the cooling effect of forest patches(R2=0.15). The correlation between community structure index and land surface temperature was weak, the tree height and the proportion of trees in urban forest survey was negatively correlated with land surface temperature of the forest patch, and the Shannon-Wiener index was positively correlated with the land surface temperature of the forest patches(P < 0.05). Conclusion: The forest patches with an area of more than 1 000 m2 in Beijing have significant cooling effects on urban heat island, and the urban tree canopy coverage and forest patch area are the key factors affecting the cooling effect of forest patches. In addition to directly planning large-scale urban forest, priority should be given to planting trees in potential areas close to the existing green areas, in order to increase the existing forest patch areas. At the same time, it is suggested that urban forest development should give priority to the selection of plants with large biomass and appropriate deployment of tree species to improve the cooling capacity of urban green space.

Key words: forest patch, cooling effect, urban forest, urban heat island, Beijing

CLC Number: