Title: Influence of land use/land cover change on land surface temperature using RS and GIS techniques

Authors: Farshad Fathian; A.D. Prasad; Zohreh Dehghan; Saeid Eslamian

Addresses: Department of Water Engineering, College of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, 51666-16471, Tabriz, Iran ' Faculty of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Raipur, Raipur, India ' Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, 84156-83111, Isfahan, Iran ' Department of Water Engineering, Collage of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, 84156-83111, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract: Remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) techniques have been extensively used over the world for the study of chronological changes in land use/land cover (LULC) and land surface temperature (LST). Moreover, understanding the relationship between them is the most important to manage lands. This study explores the application of RS/GIS for identifying LULC change and assessing its impact on LST using temperature-vegetation index (TVX) space in the east sub-basins of Urmia Lake basin, Iran. The results showed that most changes due to agricultural activities were observable as the pixel migrated from the high temperature-sparse vegetation condition to the low temperature-dense vegetation condition from 1989 to 2002; while, in addition to agricultural activities, due to urbanisation and human activities, the pixel migrated from the low temperature-dense vegetation condition to the high temperature-dense vegetation condition from 2002 to 2011 in the TVX space for entire case study. In general, the LULC change is a significant factor for LST increase or decrease, and LST changes mostly related with LULC changes in the study area.

Keywords: land use change; land cover change; LULC; land surface temperature; LST; temperature-vegetation index; TVX space; remote sensing; geographic information systems; GIS; Urmia Lake basin; Iran; land management; agricultural activities; agriculture; urbanisation; human activities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHST.2015.071348

International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology, 2015 Vol.5 No.3, pp.195 - 207

Received: 06 Jan 2015
Accepted: 12 Apr 2015
Published online: 21 Aug 2015 *

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