Abstract
Abstract The spatial distribution of urban vegetation cover is strongly related to climatological conditions, which play a vital role in urban cooling via shading and reducing ground surface temperature and effective strategy in mitigation urban heat island. Based on the Landsat satellite images, the quantitative normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was spatially mapped at two times for each year during 2008, 2013, 2019 in Baghdad. The NDVI values ranged from −1 to +1 with considering values larger than 0.2 indicate the dense healthy vegetation. In this study, the fractional areas of NDVI >0.2 were computed with their percentage. The responses of the NDVI during the growing seasons to two climate indices (i.e., air temperature and precipitation) were investigated. These climatic data obtained from the Iraqi Meteorological Organization and Seismology for the aforementioned years were used to explore the potential correlations between seasonal NDVI and above climate variables. The result shows that NDVI-derived vegetation growth patterns were highly correlated with their recording during the current growth seasons.
Highlights
The importance of urban vegetation in megacities is considered as the most effective strategy for urban cooling and Climatic conditions, human activities and socioeconomic, political and environmental factors are directly and indirectly influenced the vegetation cover status
There was a large patch of nonvegetation in the eastern part of the city (Rasafa part), which reveals that it has many poor settlement districts and high population density, bare soil and low normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values
The combinations of NDVI based on remotely sensed imageries and climatic records such as air temperature and precipitation were analyzed to explore their correlations across a semiarid environment like Baghdad
Summary
The importance of urban vegetation (e.g., trees, grassland, green parks, and forests) in megacities is considered as the most effective strategy for urban cooling and Climatic conditions, human activities and socioeconomic, political and environmental factors are directly and indirectly influenced the vegetation cover status. Dynamic changes in vegetation cover in Baghdad and its relationship with climatic conditions, air temperature and precipitation, in particular, are investigated They are main factors and mostly used to understanding climatic conditions because of their direct influences on soil moisture and the vegetation growth status (Wang et al 2003). Rainfall in Baghdad generally occurs in January, February, April and May, so vegetation cover starts to grow from March to July and from September to November. These extreme climate patterns provide a broad area of investigation about the climate behavior and its impacts on the status of vegetation. Variations in climatic factors often lead to variations in vegetation cover for a given site, which are mostly carried out using normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)
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