Spatiotemporal Impacts of Urban Land Use/Land Cover Changes on Land Surface Temperature: A Comparative Study of Damascus and Aleppo (Syria)

Mohamed Ali Mohamed

doi:10.3390/atmos12081037

Abstract

Monitoring the impact of changes in land use/land cover (LULC) and land surface temperature (LST) is of great importance in environmental and urban studies. In this context, this study aimed to analyze the dynamics of LULC and its impact on the spatiotemporal variation of the LST in the two largest urban cities in Syria, Damascus, and Aleppo. To achieve this, LULC changes, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and LST were calculated from multi-temporal Landsat data for the period 2010 to 2018. The study revealed significant changes in LULC, which were represented by a decrease in agricultural land and green areas and an increase in bare areas in both cities. In addition, built-up areas decreased in Aleppo and increased in Damascus during the study period. The temporal and spatial variation of the LST and its distribution pattern was closely related to the effect of changes in LULC as well as to land use conditions in each city. This effect was greater in Aleppo than in Damascus, where Aleppo recorded a higher increase in the mean LST, by about 2 °C, than in Damascus, where it was associated with greater degradation and loss of vegetation cover. In general, there was an increasing trend in the minimum and maximum LST as well as an increasing trend in the mean LST in both cities. The negative linear relationship between LST and NDVI confirms that vegetation cover can help reduce LST in both cities. This study can draw the attention of relevant departments to pay more attention to mitigating the negative impact of LULC changes in order to limit the increase in LST.

Highlights

Land use/land cover (LULC) changes in urban areas are a critical factor affecting the physical characteristics of the Earth’s surface due to the unique characteristics that each land use and land cover change (LULC) category possesses with respect to radiation and absorption energy [1,2,3]
In light of the advantages and disadvantages that were encountered in this research, several conclusions were reached: (1) the largest change in LULC was the decline in agricultural lands and green areas and the increase in bare areas in both the cities during the study period
This was represented by the increasing trend in the minimum and maximum land surface temperature (LST) as well as the increasing trend of the mean LST. (4) In general, the spatial variation of LST was significant between urban areas in the center and suburban areas of both cities in 2010

Summary

Introduction

Land use/land cover (LULC) changes in urban areas are a critical factor affecting the physical characteristics of the Earth’s surface due to the unique characteristics that each LULC category possesses with respect to radiation and absorption energy [1,2,3]. The occurrence of changes in LULC will lead to changes in the exchange of energy between the ground surface and the atmosphere, which, in turn, will lead to changes in the radiative and aerodynamic balance [1,4,5,6] These changes are enough to significantly alter the microclimate in urban areas [1,6,7]. This will, have consequences for local and regional weather variables [6]. LST can be an important factor controlling the physical and biological processes of land systems [11,13]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion