Towards discriminating between zones with different thermal behaviour in cities

The advances in satellite sensor technology, the launch of new satellites and the continuous development of remote sensing technology constantly increase the opportunities for monitoring the thermal behaviour of cities from space. Not only the surface temperature, but several other parameters related to the urban climate can be quantified from Earth Observation (EO) data. In this study, remote sensing techniques are applied to derive EO data products and a methodology is proposed that combines this information to discriminate between zones with different thermal behaviour in cities. Information on the building, pervious and paved surface cover, the surface albedo, the mean building/tree height and the sky view factor is quantified in local scale and then used to identify possible zones with homogeneous thermal characteristics.