Impact of landuse change and urbanization on urban heat island effect in Narayanganj city, Bangladesh: A remote sensing-based estimation

Abstract

Urban development always had a significant influence on Land Surface Temperature (LST). The impacts of urbanization on the trend of temperature rise and the degradation of the ecological environment over a period of 8 years before and after the establishment of Narayanganj City Corporation have been studied in this paper. LST has been calculated by utilizing land-use change map and computation of vegetation coverage using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), assessment of building coverage using the Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI), and using the Urban Thermal Field Variance Index (UTFVI) for the evaluation of ecological index. The result indicates that the LST has been tremendously affected by the built-up areas, especially where the heavy industries had been established. The mean LST between 2011 and 2019 went upward by 1.86°C. A negative correlation has been found between the LST and NDVI, which suggests that the green coverage debilitates the effect on urban temperature. On the other hand, the positive correlation found between the LST and NDBI shows that the built-up or paved area intensifies the LST and gives rise to Urban Heat Island (UHI). The areas around vegetation and waterbody showed comparatively lower temperatures while the temperature of the built-up area exhibited an increasing trend. The study reveals that proper heat action plans and toolkits are necessary for urban heat management and ensuring sustainable city development.