D. Lee, K. Oh, and J. Seo
Abstract—An urban cooling island (UCI) involves an area
that has a lower temperature compared with its surroundings.
The UCI effect is created from shading effects by urban trees or
evapotranspiration effects by green space and water spaces.
Water spaces such as stream and lakes in particular play an
important role in creating urban cool islands because water
spaces have higher evapotranspiration rates than green spaces.
The objective of this study is to present planning and
management information on water spaces to mitigate urban heat
islands (UHI), by analyzing their effects on air temperature due
to water space characteristics.
To achieve this, the UCI effects of urban water spaces were
analyzed by applying UCI indices such as UCI scale,
temperature difference, and UCI intensity. Next, considerations
for composing and managing water spaces to mitigate urban
heat islands were identified through analysis of the relationship
between UCI indices and characteristics of water spaces such as
area, perimeter, shape, and width.
The results show that larger water spaces are more useful in
reducing urban heat. In addition, more complex water spaces
were found to be more efficient than simple ones. The results of
this study can be applied to analyze priority areas for the
creation or restoration of new water spaces. It can be also
utilized as a planning guideline for designing water spaces.
Index Terms—Air temperature, GIS (geographic information
systems), temperature reduction, UCI (urban cooling island),
urban water spaces.
D. Lee is with the Research Institute of Spatial Planning and Policy,
Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea (e-mail: estevan0705@ hotmail.com).
K. Oh and J. Seo are with the Department of Urban Planning and
Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea (e-mail:
ksoh@hanyang.ac.kr, silver_0328@naver.com).
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Cite: D. Lee, K. Oh, and J. Seo, "An Analysis of Urban Cooling Island (UCI) Effects by Water Spaces Applying UCI Indices," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 7, no. 11, pp. 810-815, 2016.