Identifying the Influencing Factors of Cooling Effect of Urban Blue Infrastructure Using the Geodetector Model

The urban heat island (UHI) effect has a serious negative impact on urban ecosystems and human well-being. Mitigating UHI through nature-based methods is highly recommended. The cooling effect of urban blue infrastructure (UBI) can significantly alleviate the effects of UHI. Revealing the crucial influencing factors of the cooling effect of UBI is of great significance for mitigating the UHI effect. In this study, the water-cooling intensity (WCI) and water-cooling range (WCR) were used to quantitatively analyze the cooling effect of UBI in Hefei city in summer. Furthermore, the influencing factors and their interactions with the cooling effect of UBI were investigated based on the Geodetector model. The results revealed that: (1) The surface thermal environment of the built-up area of Hefei presented obvious spatial differentiation characteristics. (2) There were nine influencing factors that significantly influenced the WCI variation, with the greatest influencing factor of road density. In contrast, only the landscape shape index had a significant effect on WCR variation. (3) The interaction of environmental characteristics, water body characteristics, and socioeconomic characteristics had a significant influence on the cooling effect of UBI, and the interaction relationship between the influencing factors was mutually enhanced. The findings from our research can provide a theoretical reference and practical guidance for the protection, restoration, and planning of UBI as a nature-based solution to improve the urban thermal environment.