Urban planning indicators, morphology and climate indicators: A case study for a north-south transect of Beijing, China

Eleven sites, representing different urban morphologies across central Beijing, are used to simulate urban heat island effects and explore the relationship between urban planning indicators and climate indicators such as daily maximum and minimum surface temperatures. The results indicate that mesoscale urban planning indicators can explain the majority of the urban climate differences among the sites. For example, green cover ratio and floor area ratio can explain 94.47–98.57% of the variance for daily maximum surface temperature, green cover ratio and building height can explain 98.94–99.12% of the variance for daily minimum surface temperature, and floor area ratio, green cover ratio and building density together can explain 99.49–99.69% of the variance for time of peak surface temperature. Furthermore, green cover ratio is identified as the most significant urban planning indicator affecting the urban thermal environment.