Work

Quantifying undetected urban heat: Identifying monitoring gaps using public urban IoT sensor network

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: With rising summer temperatures causing significant health hazards in urban areas, understanding temperatures is becoming increasingly important, and while IoT sensors can help to enhance the information provided by reference stations, there has been limited quantification of the extent and intensity of the additional high-temperature data that IoT sensors can provide. This study quantifies the difference in daily maximum temperature (ΔTX) between reference stations and the high-density urban IoT sensors (S-DoT) installed by Seoul Metropolitan Government. Seventeen-day average ΔTX maps for summer were generated, and their relationships with variables representing the urban landscape and structure were examined.Key findings include: (1) The ΔTX ranged from -0.93°C to +2.36°C. (2) The positive ΔTX trend was more prominent in compact low- to mid-rise urban areas near green spaces. (3) The negative ΔTX trend was stronger in areas with forest land cover on steep-slope, likely due to the cooling effect of tree shade. (4) Large ΔTX values were also derived by the prediction uncertainty of the reference station network.This study contributes to the identification of critical thermal risk factors and their spatial distribution in compact, low- to mid-rise urban areas near green spaces that cannot be detected by reference stations alone. The strategic placement of IoT sensors in these areas has the potential to bridge the temperature gap strengthen the certainty of urban thermal risk assessment. The results provide valuable insights for urban planners, policy makers, and health professionals to enhance climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Source: Journal of Climate Change Research

DOI: 10.15531/ksccr.2025.16.5.739

Authors: Ayano Aida, Chan Park, Jong-June Jeon, Jaeyeon Choi

Language: English

Topic: Urban Heat Island Mitigation

Subfield: Environmental Engineering

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Climate action

Open Access status: green

Funders: Ministry of Environment, Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute

Award: G1055365607