Enumerating and Modelling the Seasonal alterations of Surface Urban Heat and Cool Island: A Case Study over Indian Cities

Abstract

The present study has been carried out to analyze the seasonal variation of the Urban Heat and Cool Island over the nine developing cities of India. The magnitude of urban heat/cool island and vegetation gradient (∆NDVI) were measured from the daytime satellite datasets. Results of this study show that during the pre-monsoon (March to May) season, the maximum magnitude of the Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) was experienced over Kolhapur city, whereas, in the winter, the highest intensity of SUHI was noticed over Pune city. Subsequently, outcomes also depict that the changes in ∆NDVI restrain the pre-monsoon means and the seasonal alterations in SUHI magnitude. However, during the winter (November to February) season, it is controlled by the temperature–vegetation conditions of the rural areas. For pre-monsoon and seasonal changes in SUHI, with the aid of ∆NDVI and the surface temperature of the urban area, regression equations were fitted for pre-monsoon and seasonal changes in SUHI, which explains nearly 90% of SUHI variation. Similarly, the variation of SUHI has been modeled for winter, which elucidates up to 84% of SUHI discrepancy. The study reveals that, on a seasonal scale, a decrement of 0.1 in seasonal ∆NDVI leads to an increase in the seasonal intensity of SUHI by 1.74 °C, which is quite a significant augmentation.

Keywords

• MODIS
• NDVI
• seasonal variation
• Surface Urban Heat Island
• vegetation gradient