Identification of local climate zones in the city of Rio Branco

Abstract

The population growth of Rio Branco, since the 1940s, has driven changes in land use and occupation, leading to alterations in the urban climate. Given this, the objective of this research was to apply the Local Climate Zones (LCZ) methodology in the city of Rio Branco, Acre, assess the effectiveness of the mapping, and identify the LCZ zones encompassing urban expansion axes. For this purpose, the Local Climate Zones (LCZ) methodology was used, which classifies urban and rural landscapes into 17 climate zones according to land use and occupation characteristics. The results indicate an overall accuracy (OA) of the mapping of 67%, suggesting that the methodology was satisfactory when compared to other studies on LCZs. The confusion matrix points to an overall mapping accuracy of 70.2%, with LCZ classes 10, A, and D achieving an accuracy equal to or greater than 80%. The LCZs corresponding to building types showed lower mapping accuracy in the study area. Furthermore, the urban expansion axes are mainly located in LCZ classes A, D, and G, indicating that classes with lower temperatures are being replaced by LCZ classes with higher temperatures. It is concluded, based on the accuracy values, that the methodology used is more efficient in classifying land cover classes and classes with greater spatial distribution in the city.