Urban Cooling Islands (UCI) play a significant role in mitigating heat islands, and water bodies also have a crucial function in improving the urban thermal environment. In this study, the Tena River, located in the city of Tena in the Ecuadorian Amazon, was selected to analyze its cooling capacity in different land use types along the urban-rural gradient. This was accomplished through a zonal descriptive statistics model that examined the average Land Surface Temperature (LST) within various land use categories and buffer zones along the Tena River.
Different land use types resulted in varying LST changes within the buffer zones. The cooling effect extended to approximately 200 meters in grassland areas and to 250 meters in areas consisting of sand, bare soil, and urban land uses. Urban areas, sandy terrain, and bare soil exhibited greater heat absorption and dissipation capabilities compared to wooded areas within the buffer zone. These findings can aid in the planning and optimization of urban land use designs near riverine environments.