Spatio-Temporal Mechanism Underlying the Effect of Urban Heat Island on Cardiovascular Diseases

BACKGROUND: We explored the spatio-temporal characteristics of urban heat island (UHI) effect on cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). METHODS: The land surface temperatures (LST) were retrieved from four Landsat remote-sensing images’ data, the temperature data from 95 meteorological stations, and analysis data on CVDs mortality. Based on these data, landscape pattern indexes were used to analyze the pattern-process-function and the mechanism. RESULTS: During 1984–2017, the effects of UHI on CVDs increased, thereby increased the mortality by 28.8%. The affected areas gradually expand from the central area of the city and undergo three evolution stages; the highly affected areas are mainly distributed in central and southern regions, and patches increase in number. The areas and ratio of high-level patches also show an upward tendency, increasing dominance in the overall landscape. Patches of the overall landscape become more complicated in shape, whereas those of high-level ones become less complicated. Concentration degree of the overall landscape decreases gradually with the types of landscapes patches increasing, reaching a rather even space distribution. CONCLUSION: Increased temperatures exacerbated by UHI lead to increased CVD mortality. As cities expand, the effects of UHI on CVDs increase in terms of both intensity and areas, with the overall landscape in uneven distribution, high-level affected areas in point distribution, and low-level ones in large-area concentration.