How Can Ecological Land Be Deployed to Cool the Surface Thermal Environment? A Case Study from the Perspectives of Patch and Network.

Changes in climate and rapid urbanization have aggravated the urban heat island effect, and a reasonable means to reduce temperature increases in the surface thermal environment is urgently needed. We integrated the research perspectives of patch and network, taking Yinchuan metropolitan region as the research area, and reduced the surface thermal environment through the rational allocation of ecological land. For patch, a correlation analysis and linear regression were used to study the impact of landscape composition and spatial configuration on the surface thermal environment. For network, the thermal source patches were determined based on the morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) method, the thermal resistance surface was calculated based on the minimum cumulative resistance model, and the pinch points and corridors that prevented the surface thermal environment from circulating were determined based on circuit theory. Finally, ecological land with a cooling effect was deployed at the pinch point to prevent heat patch from spreading and thus connect to larger heat networks, and the regional cooling effect was estimated. The results were as follows: (1) The fitting precision of landscape factors and the surface temperature was in the order of area ratio of ecological land > shape index > fragmentation index. When the area ratio of ecological land was greater than 61%, the patch shape was simple, the degree of fragmentation was low, and the cooling effect was the most obvious. (2) Then, 34 corridors, 44 pinch points, and 54 grids of ecological land were identified for deployment. (3) After the deployment of ecological land, the simulated cooling effect was between 0.04 and 6.02 °C, with an average decline of 2.16 °C. This research case offers approaches for mitigating temperature increases in the surface thermal environment and improving the sustainable development of cities (regions), and it serves as a reference for improving the ecological environmental quality in arid and semiarid areas.