Version 1
: Received: 18 September 2024 / Approved: 18 September 2024 / Online: 19 September 2024 (03:41:16 CEST)
How to cite:
Stumpe, B.; Marschner, B. Rehabilitated Coal Mine Tailings as Green Cooling Islands in the Metropolitan Ruhr Area (Germany). Preprints2024, 2024091417. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.1417.v1
Stumpe, B.; Marschner, B. Rehabilitated Coal Mine Tailings as Green Cooling Islands in the Metropolitan Ruhr Area (Germany). Preprints 2024, 2024091417. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.1417.v1
Stumpe, B.; Marschner, B. Rehabilitated Coal Mine Tailings as Green Cooling Islands in the Metropolitan Ruhr Area (Germany). Preprints2024, 2024091417. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.1417.v1
APA Style
Stumpe, B., & Marschner, B. (2024). Rehabilitated Coal Mine Tailings as Green Cooling Islands in the Metropolitan Ruhr Area (Germany). Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.1417.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Stumpe, B. and Bernd Marschner. 2024 "Rehabilitated Coal Mine Tailings as Green Cooling Islands in the Metropolitan Ruhr Area (Germany)" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202409.1417.v1
Abstract
Urban green spaces, such as parks, cemeteries and allotment gardens provide important cooling functions for mitigating the urban heat island (UHI) effect. In the densely populated Ruhr Area (Germany), rehabilitated tailing piles (TP), as relicts of the coal-mining history, are widespread hilly-shaped landscape forms mainly used for local recreation. Their potential role as cooling islands has never been analyzed systematically. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the TP surface cooling potential in comparison to other urban green spaces (UGS). We analyzed the factors controlling the piles' summer LST pattern using k-mean clustering and Random Forest Regression modeling. Generally, mean LST values of the TPs were comparable to those of other UGSs in the region. Vegetation moisture (NDMI), vitality (NDVI), and height (VH) were found to control the LST pattern of the piles during summer. Soil moisture (TVDI) was directly be related to VH, with highest values on the north and northeast facing slopes and lowest on slopes with south and southeast exposition. Terrain attributes such as altitude, slope, aspect, or curvature were of minor relevance in that context, except on TPs exceeding heights of 125 m. In conclusion, we advise urban planners to maintain and improve the benefit of tailing piles as green cooling islands for UHI mitigation. As one measure, the soil's water-holding capacity could be increased through thicker soil covers or through soil additives during mine tailing rehabilitation, espe-cially on the piles' south and southeast exposition.
Keywords
coal mine tailings; urban green spaces; urban heat island; mitigation; cooling islands; land surface temperature; vegetation indices; Landsat 8
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Remote Sensing
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
