• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.176-186
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• 2023

Urban Heat Island (UHI) is caused by an energy imbalance in urban areas, where building design and land cover contribute to its amplification. To mitigate UHI, increasing green space is one of the well known and the most effective approach. This study aims aimed to identify specific components of green spaces that lower temperatures and demonstrate the cooling effects based on their size and composition. Forests within green spaces have had a greater impact on temperature reduction due to shading and blocking solar radiation. Although lakes also contributed to temperature reduction, the effect to cooling intensity was not significant. The cooling distance does not depended on green space size or composition. The study emphasizes that initial temperature has a strongerinfluence on cooling intensity than green space size, highlighting the importance of vegetation type within green spaces to achieve a cooling effect. These findings provide valuable insights for urban planning and the design of green spaces to mitigate the effects of the urban heat island.

• Atmosphere
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.13-26
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• 2010

The Urban Canopy Model (UCM) implemented in WRF model is applied to improve urban meteorological forecast for fine-scale (about 1-km horizontal grid spacing) simulations over the city of Seoul. The results of the surface air temperature and wind speed predicted by WRF-UCM model is compared with those of the standard WRF model. The 2-m air temperature and wind speed of the standard WRF are found to be lower than observation, while the nocturnal urban canopy temperature from the WRF-UCM is superior to the surface air temperature from the standard WRF. Although urban canopy temperature (TC) is found to be lower at industrial sites, TC in high-intensity residential areas compares better with surface observation than 2-m temperature. 10-m wind speed is overestimated in urban area, while urban canopy wind (UC) is weaker than observation by the drag effect of the building. The coupled WRF-UCM represents the increase of urban heat from urban effects such as anthropogenic heat and buildings, etc. The study indicates that the WRF-UCM contributes for the improvement of urban weather forecast such nocturnal heat island, especially when an accurate urban information dataset is provided.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.37-46
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• 2002

The main purpose of this research is to discuss the urban heat island which will be caused by urbanization, especially by the construction of new town on a wide green zone. Over the last ten years, five new towns have been developed around the Seoul metropolitan area. However these new towns become bedroom communities and create traffic problems between Seoul and its surrounding areas because of an increase in population and a lack of roads and other infrastructures. The construction of another such new town is under consideration in the Pan-gyo area. But it is important that Pan-gyo remains a wide green zone. Many studies show that green space can play an important role in improving urban eco-meteorological, ameliorative capability and air hygiene. The objective of this study is to analyze the urban heat islands of Bund-Dang Si which was constructed in 1996 and of the Pan-Gyo area planned as new town. To investigate the local thermal environment and its negative effects caused by change of the land use type and urbanization we used LANDSAT TM images for extraction of urban surface temperature according to change of land use over 15 years. These data were analyzed together with digital land use and topographic data. As a study result, we found that the thermal island of this area from 1985 to 1999 rapidly increased with a difference of mean temperature of more than 12'E. Before construction of Bun-Dang Si the temperature of this area was the same as the forest, but during the new town construction in 1991, an urban heat island developed. The temperature of forest with a size of over 50% of the investigation area was lowest, which leads us to conclude that the forest cools the urban and its surroundings. The mean temperature of the residential and commercial area is more than +4.5$^{\circ}C$ higher then forest, so this method of land use is the main factor increasing the urban heat island. Urban heat islands and green space play an important role in urban wind systems, i.e. Thermal Induced Air Exchange and Structural Wind Circulation, because of their special properties with regard to energy balance between constructed urban and land. The skill to allocate land use types in urban areas is a very important planning device to reduce air pollution and induce the fresh cold air from green space. An urban climatic experiment featuring a numerical wind simulation study to show the air corridor will be published in a following research paper.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.43-50
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• 2014

This study assesses thermal environment of detached housing area by classifying buildings types with codes based on spatial characteristics and forms of the detached housing area and applying heat island alleviation measures, especially focused on FBCs (Form-Based Codes). We analyzed shapes and materials of outdoor space with 3D-CAD, which can affect the surface temperature of the case studies, focusing on heat island alleviation measures, and performed space design by applying relevant climate factors to a simulation. As to the 3D surface temperature and HIP distribution, low-temperature distribution was shown in the case studies when we applied heat island alleviation measures. FBCs (Form- Based Codes) is being developed for the purpose of creating new urban environment. This study is significant because it pays attention to the effects of surface temperatures on accumulation of sensible heat and reviews heat island alleviation measures with outdoor space shapes/materials in order to lower surface temperatures, aiming at improved pleasantness of the detached housing area.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.325-332
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• 2006

The purpose of this paper is to suggest practical suggestions to mitigate Urban Heat Island(UHI) problems in Daegu regarding urban surface temperature. Urban street trees's size and the relations between urban land use types and surface temperature are analysed using aerial photos, the numerical value map and Landsat TM image with special reference to Jung-gu. Total urban street tree's crown size is $156,217.6m^2$ and it is equal to 2.24% of study area. In addition, the size of 'city and residential area' is $6,681,870m^2$(95.7% of study area), which causes UHI and the total size of 'river' shows the lowest surface temperature area and 'road' and 'business and service area' are the highest surface temperature zones. Therefore, it is probable that the network between urban street trees and the lowest surface temperature areas mitigate UHI effects.

• Atmosphere
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.143-156
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• 2021

This study investigates the impacts of land cover change due to urbanization on the Urban Heat Island Intensity (UHII) and the Heat Index (HI) over the Seoul metropolitan area using the Unified Model (UM) with the Met Office Reading Urban Surface Exchange Scheme (MORUSES) during the heat wave from 16, July to 5, August 2018. Two simulations are performed with the late 1980s land-use (EXP1980) and the late 2000s land-use (EXP2000). EXP2000 is verified using Automatic Weather Station (AWS) data from 85 points in the study area, and observation sites are classified into two categories according to the urban fraction change over 20 years; Category A is 0.2 or less increase, and Category B is 0.2 or more increase. The 1.5-m temperature and relative humidity in Category B increase by up to 1.1℃ and decreased by 7% at 1900 LST and 2000 LST, respectively. This means that the effect of the urban fraction changes is higher at night. UHII increases by up to 0.3℃ in Category A and 1.3℃ in Category B at 1900 LST. Analysis of the surface energy balance shows that the heat store for a short time during the daytime and release at nighttime with upward sensible heat flux. As a result of the HI, there is no significant difference between the two experiments during the daytime, but it increases 1.6℃ in category B during the nighttime (2200 LST). The results indicate that the urbanization increase both UHII, and HI, but the times of maximum difference between EXP1980 and EXP2000 are different.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.167-176
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• 2009

Land cover changes associated with urbanization have driven climate change and pollution, which alter properties of ecosystems at local, regional, and continental scales. Thus, the relationships among urban ecological variables such as community composition, structure, health, soil and functioning need to be better understood to restore and improve urban ecosystems. In this study, we discuss urban ecosystem management and research from a futuristic perspective based on analyses of vegetation structure, composition, and successional trends, as well as the chemical properties of soils and the distribution of heat along an urban-rural gradient. Urban thermo-profile analysis using satellite images showed an obvious mitigating effect of vegetation on the Seoul heat island. Community attributes of Quercus mongolica stands reflected the effects of urbanization, such as pronounced increases in disturbance-related and pollution-tolerant species, such as Styrax japonica and Sorbus alnifolia. Retrogressive successional trends were detected in urban sites relative to those in rural sites. Changes in the urban climate and biotic environment have the potential to significantly influence the practice and outcomes of ecological management, restoration and forecasting because of the associated changes in future bio-physical settings. Thus, for management (i.e., creation and restoration) of urban green spaces, forward-thinking perspectives supported by historical information are necessary.

• Spatial Information Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.1-16
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• 2012

There is no doubt that the urban heat island (UHI) is a mounting problem in built-up environments, due to energy retention by the surface materials of dense buildings, leading to increased temperatures, air pollution, and energy consumption. To investigate the UHI, three-dimensional (3-D) information is necessary to analyze complex sites, including dense building clusters. In this research, 3-D building geometry information is combined with two-dimensional (2-D) urban surface information to examine the relationship between urban characteristics and temperature. In addition, this research introduces spatial regression models to account for the spatial spillover effects of urban temperatures, and includes the following steps: (a) estimating urban temperatures, (b) developing a 3-D city model, (c) generating urban parameters, and (d) conducting statistical analyses using both Ordinary Least-Squares (OLS) and Spatial Regression Models. The results demonstrate that 3-D urban characteristics greatly affect temperatures and that neighborhood effects are critical in explaining temperature variations. Finally, the implications of the results are discussed, providing guidelines for policies to reduce the UHI.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.2 no.4 s.7
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• pp.40-47
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• 2002

Since it is important to understand the bio-climatic change in Seoul for ecological city planning in the future, this paper gives an overview on bio-climate analysis of urban environments at Seoul. We analyzed its characteristics in recent years using the observations of 24 of Automatic Weather Station (AWS) by Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). In urbanization, Seoul metropolitan area is densely populated and is concentrated with high buildings. This urban activity changes land covering, which modifies the local circulation of radiation, heat and moisture, precipitation and creating a specific climate. Urban climate is evidently manifested in the phenomena of the increase of the air temperature, called urban heat Island and in addition urban sqall line of heavy rain. Since a city has its different land cover and street structure, these form their own climate character such as climate comfort zone. The thermal fold in urban area such as the heat island is produced by the change of land use and the air pollution that provide the bio-climate change of urban eco-system. The urban wind flow is the most important climate element on dispersion of air pollution, thermal effects and heavy shower. Numerical modeling indicates that the bio-climatic transition of wind wake in urban area and the dispersion of the air pollution by the simulations of the wind variation depend on the urban land cover change. The winds are separately simulated on small and micro-scale at Seoul with two kinds of kinetic model, Witrak and MUKLIMO.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.939-951
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• 2012

This study is conducted to estimate the air temperature decreasing effects by restoring urban streams using WRF/CALMET coupled system. The types of land use on covered streams are constructed with the land cover map from Korea ministry of environment. Restoring covered streams changes the types of land use on covered areas to water. Two different types of land use(CASE 1 and CASE 2) are inputted to the WRF/CALMET coupled system in order to calculate the temperature difference. The results of the WRF/CALMET coupled system are similar to the observed values at automatic weather stations(AWS) in Busan area. Restoring covered streams causes temperature to be decreased by about $0.34{\sim}2^{\circ}C$ according to the locations of streams and the regions that temperature is reduced are widely distributed over the restored area. Reduction of temperature is increased rapidly from morning and maximus at 13LST. Natural restoration of streams will reduce the built-up area within urban. With this, temperature reductions which are the cause to weaken the urban heat island appear. Relief of urban heat island will help to improve the air quality such as accumulation of air pollutants in within urban area.