Cool island effects of urban green open spaces in the process of urbanization: A multi-temporal study of Xiamen Island

Taking Xiamen city as the study area, we investigated the cool island effects of urban green open spaces, including forest, farmland and water body, with a multi-temporal methodology. A summer series of Landsat TM/ETM+ images were used here, from 1987 to 2009 in the process of urbanization. Both area and shape index of those green open space patches were examined in their relationships with the cool island intensity. Spatial analysis and Pearson correlation were utilized for all the three green open space types and all the five study years. The results showed that among the three types of green open spaces, forest and water patches had consistent correlations in area with its cool island intensity. Only forest had consistent correlation in shape index with its cool island intensity. The regression coefficients between the area logarithm of water and its cool island intensity presented a linear growth in the process of urbanization.