Assessment of Heat Reduction Ecosystem Services by Urban Green Spaces of Kyiv

An effective tool in combating Urban Heat Islands (UHI) manifestations is the development of urban blue-green infrastructure (BGI). BGI, through its functioning, provides various ecosystem services (ES), including heat reduction ES. This study aims to assess the heat-reduction ecosystem services provided by BGI and by specific urban green spaces (UGS) within the city. In this study, we employ a spatially explicit method for UHI assessment based on remote sensing of Land Surface Temperature (LST). We also use open data on Kyiv city’s urban green infrastructure (BGI), including the ESA WorldCover 2020 land cover map, the Copernicus Global Land Service Land Cover, and the OpenStreetMap database. The assessment involves modeling the cooling function, determining its effectiveness, translating this effectiveness into ecosystem service quantities, and exemplifying these with the case of the BGI of Kyiv. The study’s results reveal that BGI cools surfaces by up to 16°C. The least efficient green areas, occupying 23–29% of the polygon area and having a perforation of 70–80 km/km². Overall, Kyiv’s BGI provides heat reduction ES at average (33% of cases) and above-average (30% of cases) volumes. 16.7% of green spaces provide their maximum ES, while the rest require modifications to enhance efficiency.