Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Environmental Modeling and Assessment, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Urban heat islands (UHIs) represent a growing challenge in rapidly expanding cities, driven by vegetation loss and increasing impervious surfaces that raise land surface temperature (LST). Urban parks provide localized cooling that helps mitigate UHI intensity, although their effectiveness depends on park size, vegetation characteristics, and surrounding land cover. This study quantitatively assesses how urban parks in Başakşehir, Istanbul, influence LST and contribute to reducing UHI effects. Based on Landsat 8 imagery acquired under clear-sky conditions in summer and winter 2023, buffer zone analysis (100–900 m) was conducted for 20 parks ranging in size from 2 to 44 ha. Cooling indicators, including Park Cooling Intensity (PCI), Park Cooling Area (PCA), Park Cooling Efficiency (PCE), and Park Cooling Gradient (PCG), were calculated. Land cover was classified with Random Forest algorithm using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI), and the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI). Statistical analyses included One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation, and multiple regression. The findings suggest that parks serve as effective cooling islands in summer, with their effect extending up to approximately 500 m. Larger parks had higher PCI (4.64 °C) and PCA (221.17 ha) but lower PCE (0.21) than smaller ones (PCI: 0.53 °C; PCA: 66.51 ha; PCE: 1.41). Vegetation cover positively correlated with PCI (r = 0.57), while urban cover was negative (r=-0.53). PCI strongly correlated with NDVI (r = 0.83) and negatively with NDBI (r=-0.78). These findings highlight the role of park size, vegetation, and spatial planning in mitigating UHI.