TITLE:
Land Characterization Analysis of Surface Temperature of Semi-Arid Mountainous City Abha, Saudi Arabia Using Remote Sensing and GIS
AUTHORS:
Javed Mallick
KEYWORDS:
Land Surface Temperature, Land Use/Land Cover, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, Mountainous Semi-Arid City GIS
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geographic Information System,
Vol.6 No.6,
December
15,
2014
ABSTRACT: This knowledge of land
surface temperature and its spatial variations within a city environment is of
prime importance to the study of urban climate and human-environment
interactions. Few studies have examined the influence of land use and terrain
on the surface temperature effects of semi-arid mountainous urban areas. This
study investigates the urban environment characterization and its effects on
surface temperature using remote sensing. The methodologies adapted for this
study are geometric and radiometric corrections of satellite data, extraction
of land use/land cover and digital elevation model, estimation of vegetation
density using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and estimation of
surface temperature and emissivity using temperature emissivity separation
(TES) algorithm. Finally geospatial model and statistical techniques are used
for assessing the overall impact of urban environmental characterization on
urban climate of semi-arid region of Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Herein,
results reveal that the spatial distribution of surface temperature was
affected by land use/land cover (LULC) and topography. The high dense built-up
and commercial/industrial areas display higher surface temperature in
comparison with surrounding lands. There is gradual decrease of LULC classes’
surface temperature with the increase in altitude. The cooling effect towards
the surrounding urban built-up area is found increasing at the hill located
vegetated area, the downward slope and valley terrain inside the recreational
park. Therefore the spatial variation in surface temperature also reflected the
effects of topography on LULC classes. Suitable mountainous land use
utilization would help to expand the cooling effect. In the future, the
outcomes of this study could be used to build environmentally sustainable urban
planning suitable to semi-arid regions and to create practices that consider
the local weather environment in urban planning.