HEAT ISLAND ANALYSIS OF URBAN AREA USING GEOMATICS TECHNIQUES

Abstract

Urban Heat Island (UHI) is considered as one of the major problems in the 21st cernury posed to human beings as a result of urbanization and industrialization of human civilization. The large amount of heat generated from urban structures, as they consume and re-radiate solar radiations, and from the anthropogenic heat sources are the main causes of UHI. The problem is even worse in cities or metropolises with large population and extensive economic activities. The estimated three billion people living in the urban areas in the world are directly exposed to the problem, which will be increased significantly in the near future. Due to the severity of the problem, vast research effort has been dedicated and a wide range of literature is available for the subject. In this study, the UHI effect is analyzed using the Landsat ETM+ data of Nagpur and surrounding area of 14 Dec 2006. Mono window - algorithm is applied for retrieving the land surface temperature (LST). The correlation of normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) and LST also analysed and it shows the green land can weaken the strength of LST and vice versa. The LST were correlated to different land use and land cover (LULC) class in the city. The result shows that the UHI effect occurs in central part of Nagpur. It was concluded that the future research should be focused on design and planning parameters for reducing the effects of urban heat island and ultimately living in a better environment.