Estimation of the Placement and Intensity of Surface Heat Islands in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Playa del Carmen, located on the Mexican Caribbean coast, is one of the country’s main tourist destinations with constant growth in population and urban infrastructure. Recent housing developments and land use changes in the city are characterized by sparse vegetation cover, resulting in an increase...
| Autores: | , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | México |
| Recursos: | UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO |
| Repositorio: | Tlalli. Revista de Investigación en Geografía |
| Idioma: | español |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/2104 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://revistas.filos.unam.mx/index.php/tlalli/article/view/2104 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Quintana Roo Restauración ecológica Playa del Carmen Urbanización Caribe (Región) Calefacción del suelo Ecological Restoration Urbanization Caribbean Area Soil heating |
| Resumo: | Playa del Carmen, located on the Mexican Caribbean coast, is one of the country’s main tourist destinations with constant growth in population and urban infrastructure. Recent housing developments and land use changes in the city are characterized by sparse vegetation cover, resulting in an increase in surface soil temperature compared to the still-preserved jungle areas on the city’s outskirts. This study aims to identify the presence, intensity, and extent of the surface urban heat island (SUHI) phenomenon by estimating thermal differences between urban and peripheral areas of the city (both day and night) during extreme surface temperature events. The analysis and characterization of extreme temperatures was done used daily images from the MODIS-Aqua satellite for 2003-2023, which were obtained and processed from the Google Earth Engine platform, and the “exceedance over a relative threshold” statistical model. SUHIs were estimated for the years 2020 to 2023 based on the thresholds obtained to characterize events in extreme categories. The findings show significant differences in thermal change rates between densely urbanized areas (more than 50,000 inhabitants per km²) compared to those with little vegetation and areas in the city’s outskirts where tropical jungle cover still exists. The intensity of the heat islands (SUHI intensity) in May ranges from 6 to 7 °C (the month with the highest temperatures in the region). The maximum SUHI intensity was reported for May 2023 at around 8.4 °C with a maximum recorded temperature towards the city center of 42.6 °C. This study provides a basis for guiding the ecological restoration of the city to reduce the impacts of the heat island in Playa del Carmen and its effects on the population. |
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