Surface urban heat island (SUHI) effects are intensifying in arid desert cities due to rapid urban expansion, limited vegetation, and increasing impervious and barren land surfaces. This leads to serious ecological and socio-environmental challenges in cities. This study investigates the relationship between landscape composition and land surface temperature (LST) in Phoenix and Tucson, two rapidly growing cities located in the Sonoran Desert of the southwestern United States. Landsat-9 OLI-2/TIRS-2 satellite imagery was used to derive the LST value and calculate spectral indices. A multi-resolution grid-based approach was applied to assess spatial correlations between land cover and mean LST across varying spatial scales. The strongest positive correlations were observed with barren land, followed by impervious surfaces, while green space showed a negative correlation. Furthermore, the Urban Thermal Field Variation Index (UTFVI) and the Ecological Evaluation Index (EEI) assessments indicated that over one-third of both cities are exposed to strong SUHI effects and poor ecological quality. The findings highlight the critical need for ecologically sensitive urban planning, emphasizing the importance of the morphological structure of cities, the necessity of planning holistic blue–green infrastructure systems, and the importance of reducing impervious surfaces to decrease LST, mitigate SUHI and SUHI impacts, and increase urban resilience in desert environments. These results provide evidence-based guidance for landscape planning and climate adaptation in hyper-arid urban environments.

Experimental data collected from an 18x18x11 mm³-dimensional mercuric iodide detector demonstrate methods of measuring sub-pixel gamma-interaction position within a single anode pixel volume. Present work focuses on algorithms that make use of charge induced on non-collecting adjacent pixels. These estimations of sub-pixel position in the x and y directions are based on ratios of opposing neighbor pixel signals. Digital signal processing, including digital filter functions and filter variables optimized to measure the shape of transient signals, allow accurate measurements of information needed to estimate sub-pixel position. An edge collimator is used to block different areas of a collecting pixel to demonstrate the proposed methods.