Urban Temperature Simulation for resilient City Planning based on a single High Resolution Satellite Stereo Data Scene

Abstract. Temperatures in urban areas are rising due to the climate change. Together with increasing urbanization and densification reducing cooling green spaces in cities this leads to so called urban heat islands (UHI) with increased surface- and air-temperatures in urban areas relatively to the surrounding areas. Since high temperatures are the reason for many exceed deaths municipalities are forced to protect their citizens. Satellite earth observation allows to monitor the development of urban heat islands to warn inhabitants early from dangerous heat. An other important way is increasing the resilience of cities to heat waves. For this we developed a simple but efficient method for the simulation of urban surface- and air-temperatures from single very high resolution stereo satellite images. In this paper we present the improved workflow for the simulation of urban temperatures together with the calibration and validation. Further we compare the results to in-situ-measurements in the city of Memmingen in southern Germany, to LandSat thermal mapper imagery and existing works on urban heat islands. Additionally we show how modifying the digital twin e.g. by adding trees or water areas allow the simulation of different scenarios to support decision-makers on their path towards resilient cities.