Evaluation of Seasonal Characteristicsof Land Surface Temperature with NDVIand Population Density
Javed Mallick
Abstract
Vegetation cover and population density and its variability characteristics in National Capital Region, NCR, India have major effects on thermal environments, mainly on land surface temperature (LST). There are very few meteorological stations to record the surface temperature in earlier periods, and they may not be the true representation for NCR region. In such cases, LST derived from thermal satellite data is useful to study the LST variability across the NCR region, an important parameter for urban micro-climate. Satellite images from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) used to obtain Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and LST map to determine the impact of those parameters on LST variability. Higher NDVI reveals the lower LST and vice versa. The high LST-NDVI negative correlation was observed during monsoon season. Statistical analysis of nighttime LST with population density shows that population growth tends to lead to urban LST rise or Urban Heat Island (UHI) strength, as well as effects NCR micro-climate. The high population density is one of the key contributing factors for NCR's high surface temperature, UHI intensity and also micro-climate.