Impacts of land use-based carbon emission pattern on surface temperature dynamics: Experience from the urban and suburban areas of Khulna, Bangladesh

Abstract

The human-oriented urban development process significantly affects the thermal environment of cities and surrounding areas by transforming the eco-friendly land use and land cover (LULC) and increasing carbon emission. The impact of such effects is relatively higher in developing countries like Bangladesh, due to unplanned urbanization. The study aimed to examine the influences of land-specific carbon emissions (LCEs) on land surface temperature (LST) dynamics in the urban and suburban areas of Khulna city during 1998–2018. Landsat images of the year 1998, 2008, and 2018 were used to estimate LULC, LST, and LCEs change over the last two decades and documented the LCEs and LST change pattern in both urban and suburban areas. The association between LCEs and LST was examined through linear regression in the GIS environment. The experimental result indicates that (i) carbon emission sources in urban areas and carbon sinks in suburban areas have increased (ii) lowest LST was documented in carbon sinks and the highest LST in the carbon sources (iii) the correlation coefficients were 0.82651, 0.83771 and 0.89216 which indicates the strong significant impacts of LCEs on the increase of LST and become higher and higher from 1998 to 2018, (iv) LST responded highly to the increase of LCEs in the urban areas than in the suburban areas and increased LST of urban areas by 5.54 °C. The study signifies the necessity of taking proper policies and strategies immediately for sustainable urban development and the habitable sound environment.