Land surface temperature and socioeconomic residential segregation in the Metropolitan Zone of San Luis Potosí, Mexico

Economic growth and urban sprawl in territorial systems produce an uneven distribution of infrastructure and services. This creates residential areas with high capital gains that are affordable only for the middle and upper classes. For lower-income groups, the only options are depressed urban areas with limited infrastructure. The economic dynamics of urban systems require large amounts of energy that contribute to an increase in the land surface temperature (LST). The objective of this research was to analyze urban heat and exposure inequalities of socioeconomically segregated groups during the last thirty years in the Metropolitan Zone of San Luis Potosí-Soledad de Graciano Sánchez, Mexico. A spatial and temporal analysis of Landsat 5 and 8 satellite imagery was used to determine the variation in LST over the last three decades. Socioeconomic residential segregation was calculated using the Theil index. With this data, a self-segregated sector with high capital gains was identified. This sector exhibited significant differences (p < 0.05) of -2.00 °C and -1.58 °C in average LST in the spring months compared to the most depressed urban sectors characterized by the largest concentrations of overcrowded social housing and the lowest educational indexes. The spatio-temporal patterns suggest that urban expansion has led to an unequal distribution of ecosystem services for temperature regulation, leaving the most vulnerable groups with higher exposure to the effects of urban heat.