Temperature traps: the influence of the built environment on the nocturnal Heat Island Effect in Oss
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2025-08-31
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en
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Abstract
This quantitative research explores the influence of the built environment on the nocturnal
Urban Heat Island effect (UHI) in Oss, the Netherlands. The nocturnal UHI refers to elevated
temperatures in urban areas during the night. Nocturnal temperature data were collected over
the course of three nights in Oss and spatially linked to urban characteristics using spatial joins
in ArcGIS Pro 3.1. Subsequent analysis was conducted in R 4.4.0, using a Spatial Lag
(regression) Model (SLM). The findings indicate that the Community neighbourhood typology
shows the most pronounced warming effect, with a statistically significant nocturnal
temperature increase of +0.1647 °C compared to Pre-war residential. The Post-war garden low-
rise typology follows with a smaller, yet also significant, increase of +0.0894°C compared to
Pre-war residential. Apart from neighbourhood typology, one-unit increase in aspect ratio (ratio
building height/street width) in a 30-metre buffer corresponds to a +0.01236 °C rise in nocturnal
temperature. Tree count within a 10-metre buffer shows a small and non-significant warming
effect (+0.00225 °C per additional tree). Between trees and aspect ratio, aspect ratio exhibits
the strongest effect, 1.6 times greater than that of tree count. Distance to the city centre (in
metres) was included as a control variable. Although it showed a slight cooling effect, this effect
was not statistically significant. This study highlights that built environment characteristics,
particularly aspect ratio and neighbourhood typology, play a decisive role in shaping the
nocturnal UHI, underscoring the need to account for microclimatic variation in urban planning.
Future research can build on the relationship between the built environment and the nocturnal
UHI by incorporating additional parameters or by further enhancing this research.
Keywords
Nocturnal temperatures, Urban Heat Island effect, Neighbourhood typology, Trees, Urban
geometry, Aspect ratio, Spatial planning, Heat mitigation, Microclimates
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen