Page 121 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 1

Yasemin Şentürk - Kemal Mert Çubukçu

Introduction

It is revealed that since the industrial revolution, average temperature
increase in the Mediterranean Region was faster than the average temperatures
worldwide by 20%. (Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental
Change, 2019). In addition to global climate change, the changes in land cover
due to reasons such as the reduction of vegetation in and around urban areas
and fast-paced urbanization leads to regional increase in temperatures. This is
because constructions such as buildings and roads absorb solar rays much more
throughout the day compared to natural landscape elements such as the forest
or water surface. The heat absorbed through the day increases temperatures
in cities especially at night time, and accordingly, the gap between urban and
rural areas in terms of temperature gets bigger (Wong and Yu, 2005, Leconte et
al., 2015, Liu et al., 2017). This phenomenon is called urban heat islands. (Voogt
and Oke, 2003). The difference in average temperatures between the city
center and areas with dense vegetation was measured as 4,01 °C in Singapore
(Wong and Yu, 2005) and 3 °C in the cities of China (Kong et al, 2014, Zhang
et al., 2016). Likewise, differences in temperatures between urban green areas
and the nearby built environment was detected as 0,8 °C (Ng et al., 2012)
to 6,9 °C (Kong et al., 2014) The results from previous studies indicate that
green spaces have important functions in regulating the climate to mitigate
the effects of urban heat islands (Amiri et al., 2009, Carlson and Arthur, 2000,
Hung et al., 2006, Mackey et al, 2012, Marando et al., 2019, Yuan and Bauer,
2007; Tiangco et al., 2008; Weng and Lu, 2008). It is stated in relevant literature
that the spatial form and arrangement of green spaces also play an important
role in mitigating the effects of urban heat islands (Maimaitiyiming et al., 2014,
Ren et al., 2013). According to certain studies, green and blue spaces such
as pastures, forests, water surfaces and parks have a cooling effect on urban
areas. (Kong et al, 2014; Walawender et al, 2014). This cooling effect decreases
as the distance from the areas with cooling effect gets bigger (Lin et al, 2015;
Oliveira et al, 2011).
Conventional studies investigating the relationship between land cover or
urban green areas and urban heat islands ignore the relationship between
the spatial pattern of urban heat island and land cover. Such studies which
disregard the spatial heterogeneity of urban land cover fail to take the
variations in temperature formation. An appropriate spatial scale must be
specified to define meaningful relationships in terms of management of land
cover in urban planning (Guo et al, 2015). Certain studies have defined the
following as study scale: grids in various sizes (Chen et al, 2013, Malik et al,
2019, Zhou et al, 2017), various analytical units made up of grids (Peng et al,
2016), city blocks (Liu et al, 2017), self-defined polygons such as parks (Cao

106 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate,