Urban Heat Island Effect in Different Sizes from a 3D Perspective: A Case Study in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region

In the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration—one of China’s three largest city clusters, the GDP reached CNY 950 billion with a population of approximately 110 million in 2021. While megacity expansion has slowed, rapid growth in small and medium-sized cities is expected to increase their vulner...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Borui Li, Yimin Zhang, Sitong Zhao, Lili Zhao, Miao Wang, Hongwei Pei
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-02-01
Series:Land
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/3/463
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Summary:In the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration—one of China’s three largest city clusters, the GDP reached CNY 950 billion with a population of approximately 110 million in 2021. While megacity expansion has slowed, rapid growth in small and medium-sized cities is expected to increase their vulnerability to urban heat island (UHI) effects. This necessitates urgent, size-differentiated studies of the UHI to inform sustainable urban planning. This study examines the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration using Landsat 8 data to explore the UHI between different-sized cities and analyze the driving mechanisms of UHI intensity attributed to urban buildings. The results indicate the following: (1) Beijing displays the smallest temperature change (1.39 °C) and lower heating effect intensity (484.44 km<sup>2</sup> °C) compared to Shijiazhuang (919.11 km<sup>2</sup> °C); (2) a logarithmic relationship (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.4261) exists between the building volume and heating effect intensity, and the specificity of megacities significantly influences the regional analysis results of the heat island effect; and (3) the total energy consumption power of the heating effect in 10 cities within the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region is 326.23 × 10<sup>12</sup> KJ/h, which is equivalent to 11.14 × 10<sup>9</sup> kg/h of standard coal.
ISSN:2073-445X