Abstract:
Assessment of the impact of urbanization on land surface temperature and local environment of
the city are the major concern now days for environmental scientist and planners due to rising
trend of urban temperature and its effect are very serious health issues in the urban setup. In
this study, impact of urbanization over a time and its effect on increasing trend of temperature
and effect on urban ecology has been assessed for the pre-monsoon season using the Landsat 7
and Landsat 8 satellite datasets and field survey of Lucknow city, India. Land surface
temperature (LST) estimation, land use change map, assessment of vegetation cover using
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and ecological evaluation of the city was
carried out using the Urban Thermal Field Variance Index (UTFVI). Results indicated that the
spatial distribution of the land surface temperature was affected by the land use/land cover
change and anthropogenic causes. The mean land surface temperature difference between the
years 2000 and 2017 was found 17.41% (6.16 0C). The observed results showed that the outer
part of the city exhibited the highest surface temperature compared to the central area due to
harvesting of crops in the pre monsoon season, the areas having dense built-up also displayed
higher temperatures and the areas covered by vegetation and water bodies exhibited lower
temperatures. Strong correlation is observed between land surface temperatures (LSTs) with
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and UTFVI. Isotherm maps are also plotted
for the study area for both the years. The observed LST of the area also validated trough the
Google Earth Images. Ecological evaluation of the area showed that the city has worst
ecological index in the barren area in the outer of the city. The present study provides very
scientific information on impact of urbanization and anthropogenic activities which causes
major changes on the entire ecosystem of the city in the pre monsoon season.
Keywords : UHI, LST, UTFVI, LULC, Urbanization
