An analytical study on urban indices and land surface temperature

Abstract

Any urban landscape needs to investigate the rising trend of land surface temperature (LST) with its surface materials. The present study analyzes the relationship of LST with three urban indices namely normalized difference built-up index (NDBI), urban index (UI), and built-up index (BUI) (by Pearson correlation coefficient method) using nine Landsat 8 OLI and TIRS data of May from 2013 to 2021 in a tropical Indian city, Raipur. Results show that the mean LST of the city was above 40 oC in 2013 but it is controlled in successive years by executing some eco-friendly activities. All the indices build a moderate to strong positive correlation with LST. NDBI is the least deviating index and it generates the best correlation. As surface materials are directly responsible for the rise of LST, suitable ecological planning is necessary for long-term urban thermal sustainability.

Keywords

• built-up index (BUI)
• Landsat
• land surface temperature (LST)
• normalized difference built-up index (NDBI)
• urban index (UI)