Misc

Glossary

Term	Abbreviation	Meaning	Type
Biophysical Table	-	A table mapping each LULC code to biophysical data for that LULC class	Input
Shade	-	The proportion of area in this LULC class that is covered by tree canopy at least 2 meters high	Input
Crop coefficient	Kc	Crop coefficient for this LULC class	Input
Green area	-	Enter 1 to indicate that the LULC is considered a green area. Enter 0 to indicate that the LULC is not considered a green area	Input
Building intensity	-	The ratio of building floor area to footprint area, with all values in this column normalized between 0 and 1	Input
Urban heat island effect	UHI effect	The difference between the rural reference temperature and the maximum temperature observed in the city	Input
Air Blending Distance	-	Radius over which to average air temperatures to account for air mixing	Input
Albedo	-	The proportion of solar radiation that is directly reflected by this LULC class. Required if the ‘factors’ option is selected for the Cooling Capacity Calculation Method	Output
Cooling capacity	CC	Cooling capacity is the measure of a cooling system's ability to remove heat, which can be obtained based on local shade, evapotranspiration, and albedo	Output
Heat Mitigation Index	HMI	HMI is equal to CC if the pixel is unaffected by any large green spaces, but otherwise set to a distance-weighted average of the CC values from the large green spaces and the pixel of interest	Output
Wet Bulb Globe Temperature	WBGT	WBGT is widely used to quantify the impacts of heat on work productivity	Output
Air temperature	T_air	Average air temperature	Output
Energy savings	-	Energy savings are calculated based on an empirical relationship between energy consumption and temperature (e.g. summarized by Santamouris et al. 2015)	Output

Model applications

• Hamel, P., Guerry, A.D., Polasky, S., Han, B., Douglass, J.A., Hamann, M., Janke, B., Kuiper, J.J., Levrel, H., Liu, H. and Lonsdorf, E., 2021. Mapping the benefits of nature in cities with the InVEST software. npj Urban Sustainability, 1(1), p.25.
• Zawadzka, J.E., Harris, J.A. and Corstanje, R., 2021. Assessment of heat mitigation capacity of urban greenspaces with the use of InVEST urban cooling model, verified with day-time land surface temperature data. Landscape and Urban Planning, 214, p.104163.
• Veerkamp, C.J., Loreti, M., Benavidez, R., Jackson, B. and Schipper, A.M., 2023. Comparing three spatial modeling tools for assessing urban ecosystem services. Ecosystem Services, 59, p.101500.

Related readings/videos

Need inspiration?

Below is an incomplete list of readings (e.g., news articles 📰, government reports 📗, etc) and videos 📺 that might spark some cool ideas for your Studio projects.

Feel free to explore by yourself.

• 📗 Cooling Down in a Heating Singapore. 2021. Preparing for a Climate Resilient Singapore. Page 103. Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC).
• 📗 Climate Proofing the City Against Heat. 2021. Preparing for a Climate Resilient Singapore. Page 138. Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC).
• 📺 How Singapore Uses Science to Stay Cool. 2021.