ASSESSMENT OF SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF URBAN HEAT ISLANDS (UHI) IN SEMI-ARID CLIMATE

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Abstract

An urban heat island phenomenon has increased in the last decades due to rapid urbanization, resulting in a significant impact on local climate. In this study, remote sensing data was used to analyze Spatiotemporal patterns of Urban Heat Island Intensity (UHII) over a 20 years period in a semi-arid climate area. The relationship between the Land Surface Temperature (LST), vegetation and Land Cover Types (LCTs) were examined. The relation between the UHII and its driving factors (different LCTs and meteorological conditions) was analyzed. Analysis of 8-day daytime and nighttime LST data acquired from MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) shows that Amman has a significant UHII in both daytime and night time. The results show a negative correlation between the LST and vegetation indicators and between the UHII and the wind speed average, indicating a positive correlation between the UHII and temperature. Vegetation has been proven to significantly reduce LST, mainly in the daytime, due to its cooling effect that results from the transpiration process and shadow effect.

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Nancy Grimm, Stanley H. Faeth, Nancy E Golubiewski … (2008)

Urban areas are hot spots that drive environmental change at multiple scales. Material demands of production and human consumption alter land use and cover, biodiversity, and hydrosystems locally to regionally, and urban waste discharge affects local to global biogeochemical cycles and climate. For urbanites, however, global environmental changes are swamped by dramatic changes in the local environment. Urban ecology integrates natural and social sciences to study these radically altered local environments and their regional and global effects. Cities themselves present both the problems and solutions to sustainability challenges of an increasingly urbanized world.