LB 17-153 - Climate gentrification along with parks’ cooling performance in one of China’s tropical industrial cities

Industrialization processes have promoted economic development at the cost of climate change and heat hazards, one of which is urban heat island phenomenon. Urban parks are effective nature-based cooling strategies, but may also bring about climate gentrification. Our study explored climate gentrification along with park cooling performance based on satellite images in Liuzhou, one of China’s tropical industrial cities. We found that urban parks were with average cooling distance of 166.17 ± 11.69 m, cooling intensity of 2.85 ± 0.28°C, covering 41.06 ± 6.98 ha, about five times park area. The cooling lapse was 3.97 ± 0.40 °C/km. Different accessibility to park cooling area led to climate gentrification. Residents in the urban center had better access to park cooling range than those outside the second ring road. House prices increased with increasing distance to cooling range of urban parks. Measures should be taken to abate climate gentrification, such as building more parks in areas with poor cooling performance and building affordable houses. This study has significant implications for improving both the quality and equity of park construction, mitigating heating urban climate, and would provide suggestions for sustainable urban development.