Influence of Land Use and Coverage Change on Continental Surface Temperature in the Urban Area of Belem-PA

Abstract

The objective of this work is to examine the spatial distribution of Continental Surface Temperature (CST) of the urban area of Belem / PA and the influence of the change of use and soil cover from remote sensing techniques. Products from Thematic Mapper (TM) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) sensors coupled, respectively, to Landsat 5 and 8 satellites were used. The images acquired from the years 1994, 2008 and 2017 were processed, resampled (spatial resolution of 120 meters) and, finally, centroids were extracted with a total of 1252 points, using the Quantum GIS software. Subsequently, spectral indices, NDVI, NDBI and albedo were calculated, which represent, respectively, the presence of vegetation, exposed soil or built area and reflectivity rate. The results showed that CST showed an increase in all sectors of the study area, mainly between the years 2008 and 2017. The sector with the highest elevation of the CST was the urban center, as it presented values below 25.0 ºC in the image of 1994 and above 35.0 ºC in the 2017 image. In contrast, the ecological park sector showed the lowest increase in CST, from 20.0 ºC (1994) to 25.0 ºC (2017). According to the analysis of the spectral indices, the intensification of CST is directly associated with the strong territorial expansion, since from the NDVI values the degradation of the vegetation cover was noted. This degradation is observed in the comparisons of the images, in which it is possible to verify the decrease in the NDVI values in the entire study area, whose values represent the decrease in the vegetation cover. The sector with the greatest withdrawal of green areas was the northern zone, as it showed a drop in NDVI values, from 0.7 in 1994 to 0.3 in the 2017 image. It was also observed that the density of the constructed area was intensified, presenting increasing values of NDBI. Added to these NDVI and NDBI values, higher reflectivity rate values were noted, whose values in the urban center of Belem in 1994 were 0.1% and which exceeded 0.5% in the image for the year 2017, ratifying the impact of changes in land cover and the direct association between changes in the environment and CST. In general, the results indicate that the uncontrolled expansion of the urban process and the change in land cover cause the intensification of CST.