The effect of graduated urban park size on park cooling island and distance relative to land surface temperature (LST)

Cities are usually much warmer than their surroundings. This variance in temperature between cities cores and their surroundings is called the Urban Heat Island (UHI). One of the best ways to combat UHIs is through the use of vegetation. Three urban parks were selected gradually in size. These parks were sampled monthly over a period of one year. Handheld measurement devices were used to record the temperature of the surface at ground level along a transect that extended up to 3 km beyond some park's perimeter. Study results showed that the largest cooling magnitudes was observed at the large park, which had an average cooling magnitude (PCI) of 3.28 °C and an average cooling distance (PCD) of 2500 m. Average PCI magnitude of the large park shows statistically higher than both medium park 1.69°C and small park 2.25°C),these results show that there are direct cooling benefits to be obtained by greening urban areas and can be used to identify where new parks could be located to provide cooling to urban cores. This would allow for city-wide cooling plans to be developed and enable local councils and developers to make informed decisions about the amount of green space needed to offset urban growth and its warming effects.