Impact of land cover change on land surface temperature over Greater Beirut Area – Lebanon

Abstract

Remote sensing (RS) technology has been used together with geographic information systems (GIS) to determine the LC types, retrieve LST, and analyze their relationships. The term Greater Beirut Area (GBA) is used to refer to the city of Beirut and its suburbs, which witnessed rapid urban growth after the end of the civil war in the last decade of the twentieth century, due to the increase in the number of its inhabitants, and the prosperity and development of sectors such as; industrial, trade, tourism, and construction. These factors led to a wide change in land cover (LC) types and increased land surface temperature (LST). The results showed an increase in built-up areas by 29.1% and agricultural lands by 6%, while bare land, forests, and seawater decreased by 28.5%, 4.9%, and 1.9%, respectively. These changes caused large differences in the LST between built-up areas and other LC types. The highest LST recorded was in built-up areas (33.03°C in 1985, and 34.01°C in 2020), followed by bare lands (32.61 °C in 1985 and 33.49°C in 2020), cropland (31.23°C in 1985 and 32.17°C in 2020), forest (30.08°C in 1985 and 30.47°C in 2020), and water (24.97°C in 1985 and 28.15°C in 2020). Consequently, converting different LC types into built-up areas led to increases in LST and a changed microclimate.