IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i2p519-d132010.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analyzing Thermal Characteristics of Urban Streets Using a Thermal Imaging Camera: A Case Study on Commercial Streets in Seoul, Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Sugie Lee

    (Department of Urban Planning & Engineering, Hanyang University, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763, Korea)

  • Hyunbin Moon

    (Department of Urban Planning & Engineering, Hanyang University, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763, Korea)

  • Yeri Choi

    (Department of Urban Planning & Engineering, Hanyang University, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763, Korea)

  • D. K. Yoon

    (Department of Urban Planning & Engineering, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03722, Korea)

Abstract

Due to continuing city growth and global warming over the past decades, urban heat island (UHI) effects, referring to the phenomena wherein the ambient air temperatures in cities are higher than those in rural areas, have become a serious threat to urban populations. Impervious surfaces, buildings with low-albedo materials, and a lack of vegetated areas are the major causes of poor urban thermal environments, particularly during the summer. Previous research has focused primarily on the thermal characteristics of individual building units. Few studies consider the impact of the street-scale thermal environments on the surface temperature, which affects pedestrian thermal comfort. The purpose of this study is to analyze the thermal characteristics of various physical elements on urban streets using thermal imaging cameras, and present policy implications for improving pedestrian thermal comfort. This study examines street-scale thermal environments of three major commercial streets: Garosu road, Serosu road, and Narosu road, in Seoul, Korea. This study conducted field measurements both during the day and the night in June 2017 in order to investigate changes in the urban surface temperatures across time. The results show that street trees are the most effective mitigation element for reducing surface temperatures. With regard to building use types, the highest surface temperatures are typically measured near restaurant buildings. Building façades that are dark-colored or partially covered with a metal contribute to high surface temperatures. Similarly, the temperatures of artificial turf or wooden decks on urban streets are also significantly high during the daytime. The thermal characteristics of various urban street elements should be considered to reduce the surface temperature and mitigate the urban heat island effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Sugie Lee & Hyunbin Moon & Yeri Choi & D. K. Yoon, 2018. "Analyzing Thermal Characteristics of Urban Streets Using a Thermal Imaging Camera: A Case Study on Commercial Streets in Seoul, Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-21, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:2:p:519-:d:132010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/2/519/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/2/519/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mei Liu & Ying Jiang & Junliang He, 2021. "Quantitative Evaluation on Street Vitality: A Case Study of Zhoujiadu Community in Shanghai," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-21, March.
    2. Randa A. Mahmoud & Wesam M. Elbardisy, 2023. "Climate Comfort Due to Spatial Organization: A Major Factor of Urban Resilience in Complex Gentrification Nodes in New Urban Communities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-26, February.
    3. Xiaodong Xu & Xinhan Xu & Peng Guan & Yu Ren & Wei Wang & Ning Xu, 2018. "The Cause and Evolution of Urban Street Vitality under the Time Dimension: Nine Cases of Streets in Nanjing City, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-19, August.
    4. Hyejin Cho, 2022. "Effects of Road Components and Roadside Vegetation on Temperature Reduction in Seoul Considering Air, Wet-Bulb Globe, and Surface Temperatures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Néstor Santillán-Soto & O. Rafael García-Cueto & Alejandro A. Lambert-Arista & Sara Ojeda-Benítez & Samantha E. Cruz-Sotelo, 2019. "Comparative Analysis of Two Urban Microclimates: Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-11, April.
    6. Jeong-Hee Eum & Kwon Kim & Eung-Ho Jung & Paikho Rho, 2018. "Evaluation and Utilization of Thermal Environment Associated with Policy: A Case Study of Daegu Metropolitan City in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-20, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:2:p:519-:d:132010. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.