• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.125-136
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• 2019

This paper offers new ways to learn about popular places in the city. Using locational data from Social Media platforms platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, along with participatory field visits and combining insights from architecture and urban design literature, this study reveals popular socio-spatial clusters in the City of Chicago. Locational data of photographs were visualized by using Geographic Information Systems and helped in producing heat maps that showed the spatial distribution of posted photographs. Geo-intensity of photographs illustrated areas that are most popularly visited in the city. The study's results indicate that the city's skyscrapers along open spaces are major elements of image formation. Findings also elucidate that Social Media plays an important role in promoting places; and thereby, sustaining a greater interest and stream of visitors. Consequently, planners should tap into public's digital engagement in city places to improve tourism and economy.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.19-39
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• 2020

Urban heat island (UHI) is one of the most important climatic implications of urbanization and thus a matter of key concern for environmentalists of the world in the twenty-first century. The relationship between climate and urbanization has been better understood with the introduction of thermal remote sensing. So, this study is an attempt to understand the influence of urbanization on local temperature for a small developing city. The study focuses on the investigation of intensity of atmospheric and surface urban heat island for a small urbanizing district of Punjab, India. Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS satellite data and field observations were used to examine the spatial pattern of surface and atmospheric UHI effect respectively, for the month of April, 2018. The satellite data has been used to cover the larger geographical area while field observations were taken for simultaneous and daily temperature measurements for different land use types. The significant influence of land use/land cover (LULC) patterns on UHI effect was analyzed using normalized built-up and vegetation indices (NDBI, NDVI) that were derived from remote sensing satellite data. The statistical analysis carried out for land surface temperature (LST) and LULC indicators displayed negative correlation for LST and NDVI while NDBI and LST exhibited positive correlation depicting attenuation in UHI effect by abundant vegetation. The comparison of remote sensing and in-situ observations were also carried out in the study. The research concluded in finding both nocturnal and daytime UHI effect based on diurnal air temperature observations. The study recommends the urgent need to explore and impose effective UHI mitigation measures for the sustainable urban growth.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.81-90
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• 2023

Climate change has resulted in increased frequency and intensity of heat waves, which poses a significant threat to the health and safety of construction workers, particularly those engaged in labor-intensive and heat-stress vulnerable working environments. To address this challenge, this study aimed to propose an interpretable machine learning approach for forecasting personal heat strain by considering the cumulative effect of heat exposure as a situational variable, which has not been taken into account in the existing approach. As a result, the proposed model, which incorporated the cumulative working time along with environmental and personal variables, was found to have superior forecast performance and explanatory power. Specifically, the proposed Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) model achieved a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 0.034 (℃) and an R-squared of 99.3% (0.933). Feature importance analysis revealed that the cumulative working time, as a situational variable, had the most significant impact on personal heat strain. These findings highlight the importance of systematic management of personal heat strain at construction sites by comprehensively considering the cumulative working time as a situational variable as well as environmental and personal variables. This study provided a valuable contribution to the construction industry by offering a reliable and accurate heat strain forecasting model, enhancing the health and safety of construction workers.

• Atmosphere
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.257-271
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• 2011

The aim of this study is to examine weather modification by urbanization and human activities. The characteristics of the urban heat island (UHI) and precipitation in Seoul metropolitan area of Korea are investigated to demonstrate that cities can change or modify local and nearby weather and climate, and to confirm that cities can initiate convection, change the behavior of convective precipitation, and enhance downstream precipitation. The data used in this study are surface meteorological station data observed in Seoul and its nearby 5 cities for the period of 1960 to 2009, and 162 Automatic Weather System stations data observed in the Seoul metropolitan area from 1998 to 2009. Air temperature and precipitation amount tend to increase with time, and relative humidity decreases because of urbanization. Similar to previous studies for other cities, the average maximum UHI is weakest in summer and is strong in autumn and winter, and the maximum UHI intensity is more frequently observed in the nighttime than in the daytime, decreases with increasing wind speed, and is enhanced for clear skies. Relatively warm regions extend in the east-west direction and relatively cold regions are located near the northern and southern mountains inside Seoul. The satellite cities in the outskirts of Seoul have been rapidly built up in recent years, thus exhibiting increases in near-surface air temperature. The yearly precipitation amount during the last 50 years is increased with time but rainy days are decreased. The heavy rainfall events of more than $20mm\;hr^{-1}$ increases with time. The substantial changes observed in precipitation in Seoul seem to be linked with the accelerated increase in the urban sprawl in recent decades which in turn has induced an intensification of the UHI effect and enhanced downstream precipitation. We also found that the frequency of intense rain showers has increased in Seoul metropolitan area.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.573-591
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• 2010

In this study, trends of heat waves in the populous Seoul metropolitan area over the last 100 years (1908-2007) and spatio-temporal patterns of extreme heat waves and excessive human mortality are examined. In spite of recent global warming, there is no observable increasing or decreasing pattern in the frequency and intensity of heat waves in Seoul due to increases of summer precipitation. Among numerous episodes over the last 100 years in Seoul, 1994 summer is recognized as the unprecedented, most extreme hot episode with long-lasting, intense heat waves Meteorological data observed at the Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and land surface temperature data derived from Landsat TM satellite imagery in July 1994 reveal that extreme heat waves cause more abnormal increase of elderly mortality in the urbanized areas than in the surroundings covered with more vegetation. This study provides bioclimatological evidences of why urban thermal environments should be seriously considered in the future urban revitalization planning.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.6_1
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• pp.1421-1434
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• 2020

The frequency and intensity of heatwaves have been increasing due to climate change. Since urban areas are more severely damaged by heatwaves as they act in combination with the urban heat island phenomenon, every possible preparation for such heat threats is required. Many overseas local governments build heat maps using a variety of spatial information to prepare for and counteract heatwaves, and prepare heatwave measures suitable for each region with different spatial characteristics within a relevant city. Building a heat map is a first and important step to prepare for heatwaves. The cases of heat map construction and thermal environment analysis involve various area distributions from urban units with a large area to local units with a small area. The method of constructing a heat map varies from a method utilizing remote sensing to a method using simulation, but there is no standard for using differentiated spatial information according to spatial scale, so each researcher constructs a heat map and analyzes the thermal environment based on different methods. For the above reason, spatial information standards required for building a heat map according to the analysis scale should be established. To this end, this study examined spatial information, analysis methodology, and final findings related to Korean and oversea analysis studies of heatwaves and urban thermal environments to suggest ways to improve the utilization efficiency of spatial information used to build urban heat maps. As a result of the analysis, it was found that spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions, as basic resolutions, are necessary to construct a heat map using remote sensing in the use of spatial information. In the use of simulations, it was found that the type of weather data and spatial resolution, which are input condition information for simulation implementation, differ according to the size of analysis target areas. Therefore, when constructing a heat map using remote sensing, spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution should be considered; and in the case of using simulations, the spatial resolution, which is an input condition for simulation implementation, and the conditions of weather information to be inputted, should be considered in advance. As a result of understanding the types of monitoring elements for heatwave analysis, 19 types of elements were identified such as land cover, urban spatial characteristics, buildings, topography, vegetation, and shadows, and it was found that there are differences in the types of the elements by spatial scale. This study is expected to help give direction to relevant studies in terms of the use of spatial information suitable for the size of target areas, and setting monitoring elements, when analyzing heatwaves.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.1-14
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• 2020

In order to improve the urban thermal environment, efforts are being made to increase green areas in cities that include park construction, planting, and green roofing. Among these efforts, urban parks play an important role not only in improving the urban thermal environment, but also in terms of ecosystem services (serving as resting places for citizens, providing cleaner air quality, reducing noise, etc.). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to suggest planning and management guidelines for urban parks that are effective in improving the thermal environment, by analyzing the urban surface temperature reduction performance of urban parks. To do this, first, land surface temperature was calculated by using Landsat 8 images. Second, the PCI (Park Cool Island) index was calculated to identify the temperature reduction performance of urban parks. Third, the characteristics of parks (area, shape, vegetation) and the surrounding spatial characteristics (land cover, building-related variables, etc.) were identified. Finally, the relationship between the PCI indices (PCI scale, PCI effect, PCI intensity) and the characteristics of the parks and their surroundings were analyzed. The results revealed that the parks consisting of a larger area, simple shape, and higher tree coverage ratio had increased PCI performance, and were advantageous for improving the urban thermal environment. Meanwhile, PCI performance was found to have decreased in areas with a higher impermeable area ratio and building coverage ratio. The outcomes of this study can be used to identify priority areas for planning and management of urban parks and can also be utilized as planning and management guidelines for improving urban thermal environment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.249-260
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• 2017

UHI (Urban Heat Island) is an important environmental issue occurring in highly developed (or urbanized) area such as Seoul Metropolitan City of Korea due to modification of the land surface by man-made structures. With the advance of the remote sensing technique, land cover types and LST (Land Surface Temperature) influencing UHI were frequently investigated describing that they have a positive relationship. However, the concept of land cover considers material characteristics of the urban cover in a comprehensive way and does not provide information on how human activities influence on LST in detail. Instead, land use reflects ways of land use management and human life patterns and behaviors, and explains the relationship with human activities in more details. Using this concept, LST was segmented according to land use types from the Landsat imagery to identify the human-induced heat from the surface and interannual and seasonal variation of LST with GIS. The result showed that the LST intensity of Seoul was greatest in the industrial area and followed by the commercial and residential areas. In terms of size, the residential area could be defined as the major contributor among six urban land use types (i.e., residential, industrial, commercial, transportation, etc.) affecting UHI during daytime in Seoul. For temperature, the industrial area was highest and could be defined as a major contributor. It was found that land use type was more appropriate to understand the human-induced effect on LST rather than land cover. Also, there was no significant change in the interannual pattern of LST in Seoul but the seasonal difference provided a trigger that the human life pattern could be identified from the satellite-derived LST.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.17-21
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• 2009

The fire whirl occurring in the urban and/or wildland fire is generated by the instabilities of atmosphere. The fire whirl is a rare phenomenon, but highly destructive because it has high inhalation and lift force. In this study, experimental study is performed with oriental oak leaves, for investigating of the fire whirl characteristics occurred in wildland fire. As a result of experiment, the circulation intensity increases as increasing of the induced air velocity, and then the fire whirl occurs. Also, the heat release rate and flame height increase 22% and 18% in highest circulation.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.40
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• pp.1-13
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• 1989

The brightness temperature from NOAA AVHRR CH 4 images was examined for the metropolitan Seoul area, the capital city of Korea, to detect the characteristics of the urban heat island for this study. Surface data from 21 meteorological stations were compared with the brightness temperatures Through computer enhancement techniques, more than 20 heat islands could be recognized in South Korea, with 1 km spatii resolution at a scale of 1: 200, 00O(Fig. 3, 4 and 6). The result of the analysis of AVHRR CH 4 images over the metropolitan Seoul area can be summerized as follows (1) The pattern of brightness temperature distribution in the metropolitan Seoul area shows a relatively strong temperature contrast between urban and rural areas. There is some indication of the warm brightness temperature zone characterrizing built-up area including CBD, densely populated residential district and industrial zone. The cool brightness temperature is asociaed with the major hills such as Bukhan-san, Nam-san and Kwanak-san or with the major water bodies such as Han-gang, and reservoirs. Although the influence of the river and reservoirs is obvious in the brightness temperauture, that of small-scaled land use features such as parks in the cities is not features such as parks in the cities is not apperent. (2) One can find a linerar relationshop between the brightenss temperature and air temperature for 10 major cities, where the difference between two variables is larger in big cities. Though the coefficient value is 0.82, one can estimate that factors of the heat islands can not be explained only by the size of the cities. The magnitude of the horizontal brightness temperature differences between urban and rural area is found to be greater than that of horizontal air temperature difference in Korea. (3) Also one can find the high heat island intensity in some smaller cities such as Changwon(won(Tu-r=9.0$^{\circ}$C) and Po-hang(Tu-r==7.1$^{\circ}$~)T. he industrial location quotient of Chang-won is the second in the country and Po-hang the third. (4) A comparision of the enhanced thermal infrared imageries in 1986 and 1989, with the map at a scale of 1:200, 000 for the meotropolitan Seoul area showes the extent of possible urbanization changes. In the last three years, the heat islands have been extended in area. zone characterrizing built-up area including (5) Although the overall data base is small, the data in Fig. 3 suggest that brightness tempeautre could ge utilized for the study on the heat island characteristics. Satellite observations are required to study and monitor the impact of urban heat island on the climate and environment on global scale. This type of remote sensing provides a meams of monitoring the growth of urban and suburban aeas and its impact on the environment.