Assessment of urban heat islands (UHI) of Noida City, India using multi-temporal satellite data

Abstract

In the present research work an integrated use of Landsat thermal data sets of year 2000 and 2013, field data and meteorological observation were used to assess the temporal changes in rising trends of urban heat island (UHI) in Noida city, India. The temperature estimation was performed on the basis of grid level analysis and compared with the land cover pattern for validation of temperature with reference to urban land use/land cover. During 2000, the total built up area was 28.17km2 which it further increased to 88.35km2 during 2013. Over the period of thirteen years from 2000 to 2013 it was observed that the built up area has increased by 26.94% of the total area (203km2). In order to study the relationship between UHI and land cover, statistical analysis was performed between temperature and Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Albedo and Emissivity. The correlation between NDVI, Emissivity and temperature was negative but NDBI, Albedo and temperature showed a positive correlation. Results showed that the change in temperature was mainly due to increase in impervious areas. The results of this study will be useful to the urban planners and environmentalists in formulating local policies.