• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.54-60
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impacts of three-dimensional land cover on changing urban air temperatures and to explore some strategies of urban landscaping towards mitigation of heat build-up. This study located study spaces within a diameter of 300m around 24 Automatic Weather Stations(AWS) in Seoul, and collected data of diverse variables which could affect summer energy budgets and air temperatures. The study also selected reflecting study objectives 6 smaller-scale spaces with a diameter of 30m in Chuncheon, and measured summer air temperatures and three-dimensional land cover to compare their relationships with results from Seoul's AWS. Linear regression models derived from data of Seoul's AWS revealed that vegetation volume, greenspace area, building volume, building area, population density, and pavement area contributed to a statistically significant change in summer air temperatures. Of these variables, vegetation and building volume indicated the highest accountability for total variability of changes in the air temperatures. Multiple regression models derived from combinations of the significant variables also showed that both vegetation and building volume generated a model with the best fitness. Based on this multiple regression model, a 10% increase of vegetation volume decreased the air temperatures by approximately 0.14%, while a 10% increase of building volume raised them by 0.26%. Relationships between Chuncheon's summer air temperatures and land cover distribution for the smaller-scale spaces also disclosed that the air temperatures were negatively correlated to vegetation volume and greenspace area, while they were positively correlated to hardscape area. Similarly to the case of Seoul's AWS, the air temperatures for the smaller-scale spaces decreased by 0.32% ($0.08^{\circ}C$) as vegetation volume increased by 10%, based on the most appropriate linear model. Thus, urban landscaping for the reduction of summer air temperatures requires strategies to improve vegetation volume and simultaneously to decrease building volume. For Seoul's AWS, the impact of building volume on changing the air temperatures was about 2 times greater than that of vegetation volume. Wall and rooftop greening for shading and evapotranspiration is suggested to control atmospheric heating by three-dimensional building surfaces, enlarging vegetation volume through multilayered plantings on soil surfaces.