Application of Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing to Explore the Relationship between Land Use-Land Cover Changes and Urban Heat Island Effect: A Case Study of Khulna City

Abstract

Urban climate has gained a significant focus due to global mean surface temperature increase since the late 19th century. The climate in and around urban areas are changed due to Land Use/Land Cover (LULC)*and its relative anthropogenic activities which create a lot of problems. Among these, the most imperative problem is increase of land surface temperature. The aim of this study was to identify the effect on originating micro Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) due to land use/land cover changes of Khulna city. Landsat 5 TM* (Thematic Mapper) images for 1989, 1999, and 2011 were used to estimate land surface temperature (LST)* from thermal band and to prepare the LULC map with the help of visible and near infra-red band. The spatial variability of surface radiant temperatures caused by the thermal behavior of different land cover (emissivity) was retrieved from satellite data by using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and used to estimate LST. Finally, the land surface temperature and the classified land cover theme were then exported to GIS environment for urban heat mapping analysis. Thus the effects of urban development on the geographical distribution of surface radiant temperatures are calculated and the UHI was investigated. Vol. 6, December 2013, pp. 49-60