Built-up land patterns and outdoor air: modeling their interdependencies across scales
摘要
The study explores the influence of built-up patterns (BUP) on outdoor air using area (UAM) and edge (UEM) metrics applied within buffers around 73 air quality stations. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling was employed to analyze the relationships between BUP and six air outdoor dimensions (Air temperature—TEMP, Relative Humidity—RH, Wind Speed—WS, Gaseous Pollutant—GP, Particle Pollutant—PP, OZONE) across dry and wet seasons. The results show that UAM affects GP, strongest at the 1500-m buffer (path > 0.7), while UEM has no significant influence. Conversely, UAM show an insignificant relation with PP, whereas UEM is significantly associated at the 500-m buffer (path > 0.2). Both dimensions relate similarly to OZONE during the dry season (paths >|− 0.2|), but only UAM maintains this effect during the wet season, strongest at the 500-m buffer (path -0.419). UAM also consistently affects RH at the 1000-m buffer (paths >|− 0.4|) and WS at the 500-m buffer (paths >|− 0.3|), while UEM’s associations vary seasonally. TEMP is affected by UAM only at the 1000-m buffer during the dry season (path 0.170), but shows consistent effects across all buffers during the wet season, strongest at 1000 m (path 0.371). UEM slightly affects TEMP during the wet season. Additionally, TEMP only mediates the UAM-PP relations during the wet season, strongest at the 1000-m buffer (path 0.220), with a similar mediation is observed for UEM-PP at the 1500-m buffer (path 0.157). These findings emphasize UAM’s critical role in urban environmental planning.