Land use and land cover changes influence the land surface temperature and vegetation in Penang Island, Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

The ecological changes in vegetation and land of an area can be monitored and managed through the assessment of its past and present land use and land cover (LULC). In this study, we assessed the changes in the LULC of Penang Island between 2010 and 2021. We also determined the corresponding impacts on the land surface temperature (LST) and vegetation index in the form of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Landsat-5 and Landsat-8 were selected for the study. The LULC types were classified using both supervised and unsupervised multivariate maximum likelihood techniques. The LULC change analysis revealed a considerable increase in the urbanized areas (45.71%), a slight increase in the forests (1.57%) and a sizeable reduction in the agricultural/herbaceous areas (− 33.49) of the city within the stipulated period. The urbanized areas were observed to have the highest LST in 2010 and 2021 (28.75–34.0 °C) followed by the bare land (29.76–29 °C). The increase in temperature could have been driven by the reduction in the greenness of the city coupled with the openness of vegetation cover. Similarly, strong positive correlations were observed between the LST and NDVI in the urbanized areas (R2 = 0.92), and bare lands (R2 = 0.86). We, therefore, hypothesize that urbanization is the main driver of the LULC changes on Penang Island.

Temporal Variations in Land Surface Temperature within an Urban Ecosystem: A Comprehensive Assessment of Land Use and Land Cover Change in Kharkiv, Ukraine

“…This consistent growth of urban spaces underscores the relentless pace of urbanization, often occurring at the expense of green spaces. Many researchers, when examining the SUHI effect within the context of the relationship between urban area expansion and vegetation reduction, arrive at similar conclusions [9,21,23,67,84]. The study [85] reveals that urbanization in South Asian cities, as analyzed through MODIS and Landsat data, is rapidly converting vegetation into urban areas, with the SUHI trend extending from urban cores to rural outskirts, corroborating our findings in a Figure 13.…”

“…Many studies are specifically dedicated to comparing the performance of existing methods for obtaining and improving LST data [61][62][63][64]66]. The main statistical approaches and methods commonly used in the study of LST and especially LULC interdependence are supervised and unsupervised techniques [9,20,25,[67][68][69][70]; Mann-Kendall statistics [13,71]; principal component analysis end ordinary least squares [72,73]; cellular-automata [21,33,48,74] and most widely used linear and multiple linear regression analyses [9,11,15,28,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39]49,57,76]. Particular attention is merited by studies focused on establishing linear and nonlinear dependencies between LST, UHI effects, and various vegetation indices [31,67,[77][78][79][80][81][82][83].…”

“…A comprehensive analysis demonstrate an increase in LST as areas transition from dense vegetation to sparser vegetation or bare land, with moisture content being a pivotal factor in this proces [8,9,37,80,89,91]. The reduction of urban greenery directly correlates with the expansion of bare land and built-up surfaces, further exacerbating urban temperatures [67,71]. Research into the spatial distribution of LST across various urban and rural settings reveals that populated areas exhibit the highest LST across all seasonal phases, with agricultural lands, vegetation, and water bodies following in descending order of LST intensity [19,24,26,78,81].…”

Association of temperature and precipitation with malaria incidence in 57 countries and territories from 2000 to 2019: A worldwide observational study

“…The notable temperature increase in countries like Nigeria, Nepal, DR Congo, and Ecuador reflects regional climatic shifts, aligning with global climate change expectations. However, caution is needed in attributing these shifts solely to global climate change, as local factors like land use, urbanization, and atmospheric circulation patterns may contribute [ 28 – 31 ]. Similarly, observed precipitation changes in Tuvalu, China, and South Korea signify localised variations, impacting vector habitats and malaria transmission [ 12 , 14 ].…”

Assessing the Effect of Land Use and Land Cover Changes on Land Surface Temperature in Jessore District, Bangladesh using Remote Sensing Techniques

“…Consequently, assessing how these human-caused changes have impacted the city's ora became essential. Therefore, we wish to determine the effects of LULC variations in Jessore over the past two decades on sea level rise (SLR) [10]. Land use and land cover (LULC) changes are signi cant factors affecting the environment and the Earth's climate.…”