An article entitled “From Earth Observation to Landscape Units: A Framework for Urban Cooling Assessment in Polish Functional Urban Area” has been published in the MDPI journal Remote Sensing. The paper was authored by researchers from the Centre of Applied Geomatics (Anna Markowska, Julia Baranowska, Wiktor Mróz) and the Remote Sensing Centre (Katarzyna Dąbrowska-Zielińska) of IGiK.
The article summarises the team’s work carried out within the project “Enhanced Multi-Source Information for Natural Capital Assessment and Monitoring (EO-BALP-CCN1)”, co-funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), with the participation of the Space Technology Park – Research, Development and Innovation (PTK – B+R+I) and the Latvian company Baltic Satellite Service (BSS).
The study presents a method for assessing the capacity of urban areas to mitigate the urban heat island effect, using the Functional Urban Areas of Zielona Góra and Gorzów Wielkopolski as case studies. The analysis combines satellite data with information on vegetation, water bodies, impervious surfaces, and the spatial structure of neighbouring landscape units.
The results show that cooling effects depend not only on local land cover, but also on the spatial configuration and connectivity of surrounding areas. This makes it possible to identify coherent zones with very high or very low capacity to regulate urban temperatures.
The analysis was additionally complemented by independently modelled NO₂ concentrations. Areas with the highest cooling potential generally showed lower pollution levels, while landscape units with the weakest cooling function more frequently exhibited elevated NO₂ concentrations, particularly during winter.
The proposed method can support spatial planning, the protection of areas providing urban cooling services, and the identification of locations where de-sealing and the development of green-blue infrastructure should be prioritised.
We invite you to read the article.
The full text is available at:
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs18193390
