How to convert urban energy balance into contributions to urban excess temperatures?

ABSTRACT

A new approach partitioning the urban heat island intensity (ΔT) into its contributing processes is developed for the neighbourhood scale. The method transforms individual terms of the energy balance (radiation, evapotranspiration, heat storage, and convection) into partitions of temperature and is exemplified using the output of a micrometeorological model. •The temperature contribution is determined by climate sensitivity and a gain function depending on the energy redistribution factor.•The method is exemplified for the output of ENVI-met.•The software implementing the method is written in R language, a free language enabling statistical computations.