A uniform methodology of local cooling and warming effects for different urban site types: multi-perspective assessment based on four northern Chinese cities

Local temperature changes caused by urban sites strongly influence regional climate and the urban heat island effect. The social functions and natural attributes of different site types result in different local thermal impacts; however, current studies have poorly considered a uniform methodology to describe the local cooling and warming effects of these sites. Therefore, this study proposes a uniform multi-perspective methodological framework to assess the cooling/warming effects and influencing factors of different site types, considering parks, water, industrial parks, and independent factories in four northern Chinese cities. The results show that the cooling/warming effects of the four site types can be described using the same methodology. First, parks have the greatest cooling gradient and the least cooling distance, intensity and efficiency, water and independent plants show similar cooling/warming effects, and industrial parks have the least stable warming distance and gradient. Second, biophysical parameters and coverage of impervious surfaces, vegetation, and water strongly influence cooling/warming effects and have opposite effects both internal and external to the sites. Third, considering synergistic thermal effects, the quantitative accumulation of land surface temperature showed the strongest overall thermal impact from water and the unequal distribution of cooling sites in the four cities.