The urban thermal environment is a critical topic in contemporary urban studies. However, the mechanisms driving the relationships between influencing factors and the urban thermal environment across different spatial scales and temporal dimensions remain unclear, particularly as most of these relationships exhibit nonlinearity. This study utilizes XGBoost and SHAP models, combined with a partial dependency plot, to analyze the influence of population activities, built environment, urban topography, ecological and climatic conditions, and urban landscape pattern on the diurnal and nocturnal land surface temperature (LST) changes across urban and rural areas of Hangzhou throughout the year. The results indicate that during the daytime, urban topography exerts a strong influence on LST changes in both urban and rural areas of Hangzhou. At nighttime, the influence of population activities becomes more pronounced. Meanwhile, urban landscape patterns show no significant impact on LST in either urban or rural areas, regardless of daytime or nighttime. Additionally, we analyzed the specific nonlinear relationships between influencing factors and LST. Finally, our findings suggest that influencing factors can interact synergistically in pairs to affect LST, with this mechanism being more prominent in urban areas. Overall, the study categorizes and examines the factors contributing to urban thermal environment changes from spatial and temporal perspectives, providing insights for developing urban planning strategies to mitigate urban heat issues in the future.

Introduction: Scientific evaluation of the suitability of human settlement in arid areas and a grasp of their spatial differentiation characteristics are of great significance for the implementation of regional human settlement environment (HSE) improvement according to local conditions.Methods: In this study, we took Gansu Province (GS), a typical arid area in China, as the research object. First, based on field research, we used the analytic hierarchy process to determine the weights of 12 evaluation indicators and build an HSE evaluation model from the two dimensions of nature and humanities. Then, we conduct a comprehensive evaluation of each factor based on the GIS spatial analysis module. Finally, we used the GIS natural breakpoint method and zoning statistics to understand the suitability of the HSE and its spatial distribution characteristics in GS Province.Results: The study findings can be summarized as follows: (1) The spatial distribution of the suitability of the natural environment in GS Province shows that the east-central part of the province is significantly higher than the northwestern, and there is a big difference between localities. (2) The comprehensive suitability of human settlement in GS Province appears as a spatial distribution characteristic, gradually decreasing from the central urban area to the surrounding areas. The suitability index of the living environment is between 0.26 and 0.71. (3) The area sizes of the five types of suitability are ranked as the following: low suitable (138,502 km²) > moderately suitable (133,761 km²) > critical suitable (97,244 km²) > high suitable (47,459 km²) > unsuitable (38,980km²); in 14 cities, the average value of habitat suitability index is more than 0.5 accounting for 42.9%.Discussion: Our research not only fills a gap in the research of human settlement in arid zones but also provides policy support for government departments to improve human settlement.

Amid accelerating global urbanization, the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, as a repository of multi-ethnic architectural heritage, plays a crucial role in preserving plateau cultural diversity and sustaining harmonious human–environment relationships. A critical research gap persists, however, in the systematic, comparable, and quantitative assessment of urban architectural character across plateau towns, particularly in high-altitude, ecologically sensitive, and multi-ethnic regions such as Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. This study takes the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture as a case to address the specific paradox between the homogenization of urban architectural styles and the erosion of cultural authenticity in plateau towns. We develop and apply an innovative three-dimensional evaluation model—encompassing natural substrate, built environment, and cultural context—to 22 towns. For the first time in research on this region, a chained methodological approach integrating descriptive statistics, principal component analysis (PCA), and cluster analysis is employed to systematically examine the spatial differentiation of architectural character. The analysis reveals three key findings. First, it delineates a regional composite landscape characterized by mountain-basin enclosures, seasonal arid rivers and lakes, small-scale towns with expansive layouts, and multi-ethnic cultural fusion. Second, it identifies a clear ternary differentiation in urban style dominance: nine towns are nature-dominated, nine are human-made (built environment) dominated, and only four are culture-dominated, quantitatively highlighting a significant weakness in the cultural dimension. Third, cluster analysis objectively classifies the towns into eight distinct character groups—for instance, Category I towns exhibit strong architectural regionalism and traditional continuity, whereas Category V towns integrate modern relics with adjacent mountain-water features. Methodologically, this study contributes by providing a replicable, chained quantitative framework that addresses a critical gap in comparative urban studies of high-altitude, underdeveloped regions. Empirically, it reveals the specific “nature > human-made > culture” dominance pattern in Haixi and offers a scientific foundation for formulating differentiated conservation and development strategies tailored to distinct town types in the ecologically fragile areas of western China.

Rural courtyard dwellings in cold regions are commonly characterized by low winter indoor temperatures, intermittent heating, solar heat gain, pronounced thermal fluctuations, and strong occupant adaptation. This study aimed to compare short-term winter indoor thermal conditions among three rural courtyard dwelling cases in Qingcheng Ancient Town, Gansu Province, Northwest China, and to examine the associations between operative temperature and multidimensional subjective thermal responses under the monitored conditions. Synchronized indoor–outdoor environmental measurements and 216 paired questionnaire records were collected during two winter survey days. To account for shared environmental exposure, the questionnaire records were organized into 66 dwelling–time clusters. The results showed that: (1) outdoor air temperature ranged from −13.34 °C to 13.24 °C, with a mean of −3.91 °C, while the mean operative temperature during the questionnaire periods was 11.31 °C and the mean thermal sensation vote (TSV) was −0.97, indicating an overall sensation close to slightly cool; (2) the dwelling with an added sunspace had the highest mean operative temperature, the ordinary brick–concrete dwelling exhibited the greatest temperature fluctuation, and the earth–wood dwelling remained cooler but relatively stable; (3) each 1 °C increase in operative temperature was associated with 75% higher odds of reporting a warmer TSV category (OR = 1.75, 95% CI: 1.53–2.00), while the two-way fixed-effects model estimated a 0.176-unit increase in mean TSV; and (4) higher operative temperature was associated with greater broad and clear thermal acceptability and a lower likelihood of preferring warmer conditions, with the study-specific neutral operative temperature estimated at 16.75 °C and a block-bootstrap 95% confidence interval of 15.66–18.40 °C. These findings provide field-based evidence of the associations between operative temperature and multidimensional winter thermal responses and offer an empirical basis for climate-responsive and heritage-sensitive thermal improvement strategies for rural courtyard dwellings.