Investigating changes of summer urban heat island in Kansas City from 2000 to 2023 with remote sensing
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Rising average temperatures are having multiple effects on humans both financially and in healthcare. These temperatures are exacerbated within urban areas where the materials comprising the urban landscape absorb more solar radiation and re-emit more longwave radiation, or heat. This excess temperature is visible in thermal imagery that is collected by satellites such as the MODIS and Landsat platforms. These satellites were not always available, and the datasets obtained from them only go back around 30-40 years and reliable thermal imagery has only been available for the last 30 years. From this issue of satellite data availability, there have not been many analyses of cities with urban heat island stress. This investigation into urban heat island covers the Kansas City Metro area and searches for any changes that are evident from 2000 through 2023. The results of this investigation show that between both methods for calculating urban heat island that are utilized in this investigation, the intensity of urban heat island is growing within areas that are already heavily urban landscaped. Even without average temperatures showing much growth and still utilizing many of the same urban materials for the Kansas City urban landscape, urban heat island values are showing rising values. However, current systems for calculating urban heat island may have issues when it comes to heatwave activity. Where heatwaves are showing higher urban values for temperatures, the rural surroundings are also showing temperatures high enough to bring down the value of urban heat island in both methods used to calculate urban heat island for this investigation. This phenomenon gives the impression that urban heat island is weaker during heatwave events even with higher urban temperatures. Even without the added strength of heatwave months factored into the urban heat island calculations, the data analysis shows that the urban heat island values are rising in well-established urbanized areas and look to continue to rise in the future.
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Introduction -- Data -- Methodology -- Results -- Discussion -- Conclusion
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M.S. (Master of Science)