Modelling the impact of green solutions upon the urban heat island phenomenon by means of satellite data

Climate change causes a critical increase of temperature and frequency of heat waves, whose impact is particularly sensitive within the urban environment. Here, the loss of natural areas, beside morphological and thermal properties, makes urban temperature to be significantly higher compared to peri-urban and rural areas. This phenomenon is commonly known as urban heat island (UHI). Because green infrastructure provides an effective strategy for reducing the UHI effect, we explore the feasibility of remotely sensed data and statistical modelling for assessing the effectiveness of green measures. We simulated how implementing green roofs over the city of Milan could affect temperature. Geographically weighted regression has been used to model the correlation among satellite-derived vegetation map and near-surface air temperature.