Vegetation indices, especially the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), are widely used in urban vegetation assessments. However, estimating the vegetation abundance in urban scenes using the NDVI has constraints due to the complex spectral signature related to the urban structure, materials and other factors compared to natural ground surfaces. This paper employs the 3D discrete anisotropic radiative transfer (DART) model to simulate the spectro-directional reflectance of synthetic urban scenes with various urban geometries and building materials using a flux-tracking method under shaded and sunlit conditions. The NDVI is calculated using the spectral radiance in the red (0.6545 μm) and near-infrared bands (0.865 μm). The effects of the urban material heterogeneity and 3D structure on the NDVI, and the performance of three NDVI-based fractional vegetation cover (FVC) inversion algorithms, are evaluated. The results show that the effects of the building material heterogeneity on the NDVI are negligible under sunlit conditions but not negligible under shaded conditions. The NDVI value of building components within synthetic scenes is approximately zero. The shaded road exhibits a higher NDVI value in comparison to the illuminated road because of scattering from adjacent pixels. In order to correct the effects of scattering caused by building geometry, the reflectance of the Landsat 8/OLI image is corrected using the sky view factor (SVF) and then used to calculate the FVC. Jilin-1 satellite images with high spatial resolution (0.5 m) are used to extract the vegetation cover and then aggregated to 30 m spatial resolution to calculate the FVC for validation. The results show that the RMSE is up to 0.050 after correction, while the RMSE is 0.169 before correction. This study makes a contribution to the understanding of the effects of the urban 3D structure and material reflectance on the NDVI and provides insights into the retrieval of the FVC in different urban scenes.

The complete surface temperature (T_c) in urban areas, defined as the mean temperature of the total active surface area, is an important variable in urban micro-climate research, specifically for assessment of the urban surface energy balance. Since most vertically-oriented building facets are not observed by a nadir-viewing remote imaging radiometer, the radiometric surface temperature (T_r) measured at a specific view angle cannot be used with existing heat transfer equations to estimate radiative and convective fluxes in the urban environment. Thus, it is necessary to derive T_c for city neighborhoods. This study develops a simple method to estimate T_c from T_r with the aid of the Temperatures of Urban Facets in 3D (TUF-3D) numerical model, which calculates 3-D sub-facet scale urban surface temperatures for a variety of surface geometries and properties, weather conditions and solar angles. The effects of geometric and meteorological characteristics – e.g., building planar area index (λ_p), wall facet area index (F), solar irradiance – on the difference between T_c and T_r were evaluated using the TUF-3D model. Results showed the effects of geometric and meteorological characteristics on the difference between T_c and T_r differ between daytime and nighttime. The study then sought to predict the relationship between T_r and T_c, using λ_p, F, and solar irradiance for daytime and only using λ_p and F for nighttime. Based on the simulated data from TUF-3D, the resulting relationships achieve a coefficient of determination (r²) of 0.97 and a RMSE of 1.5 K during daytime, with corresponding nighttime values of r² = 0.98 and RMSE = 0.69 K. The relationships between T_r and T_c are evaluated using high resolution airborne thermal images of daytime urban scenes: r² = 0.75 and RMSE = 1.09 K on August 6, 2013 at 12:40 pm; and r² = 0.86 and RMSE = 1.86K on October 24, 2017 at 11:30 am. The new relationships were also applied to estimate T_c from T_r in Hong Kong retrieved from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER). In the present climatic context, the difference between T_c and T_r can reach 10 K during daytime in summer, and 6 K during daytime in winter, with seasonal variation attributable to the variations in shortwave irradiance. The nighttime difference between T_c and T_r can also reach 2 K in both summer and spring seasons.