Analyzing Relationship Between Land Use/Land Cover and Land Surface Temperatures Over Bhilwara District Using Geospatial Techniques .

Abstract

Land use land cover (LULC) changes on the surface of the earth are classic manifestation of the relationship between man and his environment. Various studies have analyzed LULC changes and land surface temperatures (LST) to study the environmental livability and sustainability, especially of urban areas. The combination proves reasonable to understand the variations in surface heat fluxes due to changing landscape dynamics. The present study investigates LST variations over Bhilwara district in correspondence to the land cover distribution. Multi-spectral satellite data of Landsat 8 OLI and TIRS (October, 2017) have been used to derive LULC and LST patterns in the region. Supervised classification using maximum likelihood classifier has been employed to map seven LULC classes: water body, agriculture cropped, agriculture fallow, vegetation/grass, built-up, scrub and barren. Thermal bands of the satellite data have been used to estimate LST by applying NDVI threshold methods. Results show a high correlation between spatial patterns of LULC and LST. 'Agriculture fallow' and 'barren' classes correspond to highest surface temperatures followed by 'scrub' and 'built-up' while the lowest temperatures are recorded over 'water' and 'vegetation/grass'. The study underlines immense potential of geospatial technique to address dynamic environmental issues at regional level.