Spatio-Temporal Urban Heat Island Phenomena Assessment using Landsat Imagery: A Case Study of Bangkok Metropolitan and its Vicinity, Thailand

Abstract

Applications of LST data to advanced research on UHI phenomena and its intensity are still relatively low in Thailand. The main objectives of this study are (1) to extract and predict LST data associated with urban and non-urban areas from Landsat imageries and (2) to quantify the intensity of UHI phenomena and its changes over BMV between 2006 and 2026. The research methodology was conducted systematically to extract and predict the LST associated with the urban and non-urban areas in order to assess the intensity of UHI phenomena. The results show that WAI as UHI intensity is extremely critical between 2006 and 2022 and becomes critically severe during 2024 and 2026. The result also show that URI as a degree of UHI development has increased from 2010 to 2016, however, it will suddenly decrease in 2018 and continuously increase between 2020 and 2026. In addition, TGCI analysis indicates that a decreasing temperature trend is dominant in the existing urban areas while an increasing temperature trend shows remarkably in urban expansion areas. These findings confirm the impacts of urbanization and urban development state on UHI intensity. In conclusion, the approaches and results of this study can be applied to master the urban planning properly, especially the mitigation of UHI phenomena in the future.

Keywords

• Land surface temperature (LST)
• Urban heat island (UHI)
• WAI
• URI
• TGCI
• Bangkok metropolitan and its vicinity (BMV)