Understanding the differences in the effect of urbanization on land surface temperature and air temperature in China: insights from heatwave and non-heatwave conditions

Accelerated urbanization and frequent heatwave events pose significant threats to human health. Analyses of the differences in air and land surface temperature (LST) under extreme climates can aid in understanding human-nature ecosystem coupling and the required adaptations to climate change. In this study, we quantified differences in urban and rural temperatures in China under heatwave (CHW) and non-heatwave periods (NHW) conditions and the influence of meteorological factors on these differences. Based on impervious surface data, 2421 urban and rural stations were dynamically classified from 2008 to 2017. Heatwaves were identified using relative thresholds, and differences were explored using meteorological data and MODIS LST data. For LST, urban–rural temperature difference (U-R Tempdiff ) was highest during the day, whereas air temperature peaks occurred at night, under both NHW and CHW conditions. During CHWs, the daytime U-R Tempdiff was greater for LST than for air temperature, reaching 4.24 ± 3.38 °C. At night, U-R Tempdiff was slightly lower (1.04 ± 1.41 °C). The proportion of air U-R Tempdiff contributed by rural air temperature was significantly higher during CHW nights than during NHW nights, whereas the proportion of land surface and air U-R Tempdiff remained relatively stable during daytime. Spatially, the daytime temperature difference in the north decreased with latitude, whereas the difference in the south was lower. Under CHWs, urbanization had a stronger effect on LST than on air temperature, with a slightly smaller difference (0.01 °C yr −1 ) during the day and a slightly larger difference (0.03 °C yr −1 ) at night. The contribution of urbanization to LST was higher than that to air temperature, particularly during the day (16.34%). The effects of wind speed and precipitation on the average air urban–rural temperature difference was greater than those of LST under CHW, accounting for 16.13%, with the effects of wind speed being more significant. These results show that a comprehensive perspective is needed to understand the risks associated with a temperature rise risk under extreme climate conditions and to formulate effective mitigation measures that will they improve human thermal comfort under climate change.