A framework for a comprehensive mobile data acquisition setting for the assessment of Urban Heat Island phenomenon

The debates around the Urban Heat Island phenomenon (UHI) have gained momentum in the context of smart cities and sustainable development. It is crucial to understand the complex interaction between urban features and temperature variation in the city based on reliable and detailed data. Yet, the complex interaction between the UHI of the canopy layer, paved surfaces and urban geometries (e.g., buildings, vegetation, and urban elements) has not been intensively explored to accurately capture their interplay. This is mainly caused by the palpable absence of comprehensive data that can support this type of correlational analysis. This paper proposes a comprehensive data acquisition framework to guide the collection of the requited data for the development of a data-driven UHI assessment model, with a specific focus on the contributions of paved roads to UHI. The framework was tested with a case study in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, during a period of six months. The data collected, highlights the useability of the proposed framework for collecting high-resolution urban data required to assist local governments and urban planners to make informed decisions. To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first time the interplay between urban feature, surface and air temperatures has been measured via mobile transects.