Spatiotemporal analysis of the atmospheric and surface urban heat islands of the Metropolitan Area of Toluca, Mexico

Abstract

The dynamic of consolidation of urban areas inLatin America has allowed that almost 80% of the popula-tion concentrates in cities; this has produced changes in landcovers and modified regional climate, propitiating theappearance of urban heat islands. The Metropolitan Area ofToluca, State of Mexico, Mexico, holds the fifth nationalplace in population size and experiences this process,because of this, the objective is to analyze and compare thespatiotemporal characteristics of the atmospheric urban heatisland obtained from data gathered from 12 urban and ruralweather stations with the surface urban heat island obtainedfrom the digital processing of four Landsat 8 images. Resultsshow the year-round presence of night-time atmosphericurban heat islands, which reach a peak in autumn (up to6°C). Daytime atmospheric urban heat islands occur insummer and autumn with a maximum intensity of 4°C. Fortheir part, surface urban heat islands occur in spring, sum-mer and autumn and reach maximums of 19°Cinintensity.A strong correlation was found between wetness and surfacetemperature (coefficient of determination, 0.8) in spring andwinter. Soil wetness directly impacts the formation of weakurban heat islands in dry season, and intense ones in wetseason, while the green areas and the winds affect the spatialdistribution of the same.