Cooler urban spaces? Analysis and optimization of heat-exposed landscape morphology from the perspective of local climate zones

The implementation of systematic heat exposure (HE) risk mitigation measures provides significant benefits for public health protection and urban sustainable development. However, previous studies have primarily focused on the characteristic elements affecting thermal environments, with few exploring the improvement of key HE areas from a network perspective. Based on multi-temporal remote sensing and socioeconomic data, this study employed the morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) method to identify the thermal exposure landscape morphology of the main urban area of Xi'an. The landscape was classified into seven parts: core, islet, perforation, edge, loop, bridge, and branch. Building on this classification, spatial configuration strategies and micro-level recommendations were proposed for local climate zones (LCZs). The results revealed clear spatial aggregation characteristics of HE in the study area, with high-temperature and high-population (H-H) areas accounting for 11.14 %. Among these, core areas were the dominant heat sources, characterized by a higher proportion of intensive buildings. Bridge and edge areas significantly facilitated HE diffusion and were mainly composed of compact mid-level, open mid-level, and large-scale buildings. Conversely, islets inhibited the spread of HE, with a considerably higher proportion of natural types, such as scattered trees, compared to other landscape pattern types. Based on these findings, we propose "meso-micro" dual-scale collaborative intervention strategies, which can reduce regional temperatures by 0.59–3.03 °C, providing a feasible technical path for thermal environment governance in high-density urbanized areas.