Urban Heat Island Effect and Unequal Temperature-Related News Attention in Taiwan’s Major Cities
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13113243 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tsz-Kin Lau (0009-0009-9111-7418, Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, corresponding author), Hsieh-Chih Hsu (0000-0003-2716-5991, Cheng Shiu University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 10 |
| Pages | 417-417 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Urban Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2413-8851 • E-ISSN: 2413-8851 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/urbansci9100417 |
| OpenAlex | W4414965805 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 57 |
Taiwan, located in a subtropical region, has experienced continuous warming in recent years, making the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect one of its most pressing environmental challenges. Importantly, UHI is not confined to Taipei, the most populous city, but is also present in other metropolitan areas. This study investigates UHI effects in the five largest cities in Taiwan and examines climate-related news attention using web crawling. Cross-city comparisons are further conducted through Urban Heat Island Intensity (UHII) and correlation analysis. The results reveal that Taipei records the highest number of UHI-related news reports, particularly during summer, and its UHII is about 1.5 °C to 3 °C higher than in the other four cities. In addition, UHII in Taipei shows a marked increase between 2021 and 2023, suggesting a worsening impact on citizens’ living conditions. Meanwhile, news coverage in Taipei dominates nationwide attention, creating a spatially uneven distribution of media focus. This imbalance may undermine efforts to promote UHI mitigation and adaptation strategies in cities outside Taipei. Overall, this study highlights that UHI is not solely a problem of Taipei but a widespread issue across Taiwan’s urban areas. The findings provide useful references for policymakers and government agencies, emphasizing the need for equitable attention and broader public engagement through media channels to raise awareness and foster comprehensive climate adaptation actions
Climate change · Extreme heat · Global warming · Government (linguistics · Metropolitan area · Subtropics · Urban climate · Urban heat island · Remote Sensing and Land Use · Urban Heat Island Mitigation
Effects of urban planning indicators on urban heat island
Greenery as a mitigation and adaptation strategy to urban heat
Effects of News Coverage on Policy Attention and Actions
Mitigating urban heat islands
The application of a high-density street-level air temperature observation network (HiSAN)
Investigating the relationship between air temperature and the intensity of urban development using on-site measurement, satellite imagery and machine learning
Investigating the quantitative impact of the vegetation indices on the urban thermal comfort based on machine learning
Efficient and cost-effective method for identifying urban ventilation corridors using a heuristic search algorithm
Machine learning in modelling the urban thermal field variance index and assessing the impacts of urban land expansion on seasonal thermal environment
Spatial relationship between land development pattern and intra-urban thermal variations in Taipei
Roles of past, present, and future land use and anthropogenic heat release changes on urban heat island effects in Hanoi, Vietnam
What do we mean by justice in sustainability pathways? Commitments, dilemmas, and translations from theory to practice in nature-based solutions
Mapping the socio-political landscape of heat mitigation through urban greenspaces
Spatial Aspects of Newsworthiness
Making the News
Mounting media pressure
Greenspace patterns and the mitigation of land surface temperature in Taipei metropolis
Perceptions of regional inequality and the geography of discontent
Cities and their news media images
News and Public Opinion
Three Faces of Climate Justice
Beyond Distribution and Proximity
Critical climate justice
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |