Spatiotemporal Influences of LULC Changes on Land Surface Temperature in Rapid Urbanization Area by Using Landsat-TM and TIRS Images

Eduardo Andre Kaiser,Silvia Beatriz Alves Rolim,Pâmela Suélen Käfer,Atilio Efrain Bica Grondona,Rodrigo de Marsillac Linn,Nájila Souza da Rocha,Lucas Ribeiro Diaz,Cristiano Lima Hackmann

doi:10.3390/atmos13030460

Abstract

The inverse correlation between NDVI and LST is widely known for its long time series. However, when more specific statistical tests were performed, subtle differences in the correlation behavior over time are more clearly observed. In this work, regression analyses were performed between NDVI and LST at intervals of approximately 10 years, quantifying this relationship for an area of transition from vegetation to urban occupation from 1985 to 2018. The removal of vegetation cover (reduction of 51% to 7% in grassland and 14.4% to 0.6% in forest) to occupy impermeable surfaces ( increase of 31% to 91% in urban areas) caused an average LST increase of 4.18 °C when compared to the first and last decades of the historical series. Temporal analysis allowed us to verify the increase in temperature in the four seasons. The largest difference was 6.36 °C between the first and last decade of autumn, 4.40 °C in spring, 4.09 °C in summer, and 2.41 °C in winter. The results also show that LST has a negative correlation with NDVI, especially in urban areas, with an increase in this correlation during the period (1989: R = −0.55; 1999: R = −0.58; 2008: R = −0.59; 2018: R = −0.76). Our study results will help policymakers understand the dynamics of temperature increases by adding scientifically relevant information on the sustainable organization of the urban environment.

Highlights

In view of the urbanization process, which has intensified since the 18th century and is mainly associated with the occurrence of the rural exodus and the industrialization process, it is possible to verify the unrestrained growth of the population and urban spots in the global scenario
RTE inversion was used to retrieve the LST of images collected by the sensors throughout the historic series (1985–2019), and land use and land cover (LULC) classification was performed in the spring of the years 1989, 1999, 2008, and 2018 in order to verify the influence of LULC classes on the temperature from Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) on a temporal and spatial scale
The main conclusions were as follows: (1) The LST retrieved by the RTE inversion of Landsat 5 and 8 data showed consistency both for atmospheric parameters obtained from MODTRAN (1985–1999) and for NASA’s online calculator (2000–2018)

Summary

Introduction

In view of the urbanization process, which has intensified since the 18th century and is mainly associated with the occurrence of the rural exodus and the industrialization process, it is possible to verify the unrestrained growth of the population and urban spots in the global scenario. According to Zhang and Sun [7], as the main urbanization reflection, there is an increase in the Earth’s surface temperature (LST) and the consequent formation of SUHI, known as heat core, thermal or humid cores, heated core, or even as heat pockets. This increase occurs because of anthropic interferences occuring in the environment by replacing natural surface covers with materials with high heating capacity. There is a decrease in urban green areas that would be responsible for reducing LST through the evapotranspiration process [8,9]

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