Land Use/Land Cover Changes and the Relationship with Land Surface Temperature Using Landsat and MODIS Imageries in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Abstract

Mountainous regions are more sensitive to climatic condition changes and are susceptible to recent increases in temperature. Due to urbanization and land use/land cover (LULC) issues, Cameron Highlands has been impacted by rising land surface temperature (LST) variation. Thus, this study was carried out to explore the impact of the LULC change on LST in the Cameron Highlands from 2009 to 2019 using remote sensing images acquired from Landsat 7 ETM+, Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI/TIRS), and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 11A Thermal sensors. A split-window algorithm was applied to Landsat 8 images (2013–2019) to derive the LST. Air temperature data of the study area were also obtained to cross-validate data sources. Based on the validation results, the accuracy of LULC and LST outputs were more than 94.6% and 80.0%, respectively. The results show that the current trend of urban growth continues at a rate of 0.16% per year, and the area experienced an LST increase of 2 °C between 2009 and 2019. This study is crucial for land planners and environmentalists to understand the impacts of LULC change on LST and to propose appropriate policy measures to control development in Cameron Highlands.

Impact of Urban Land-Cover Changes on the Spatial-Temporal Land Surface Temperature in a Tropical City of Mexico

“…At local scales, the increase in urban infrastructure increases albedo, decreases evapotranspiration, and generates the UHI phenomenon [5,71,72], while at regional scale, forest cover keeps the temperature relatively constant, and the climatic variations could be associated with regional or global climatic events or phenomena (El Niño and the Southern Oscillation, or global climate change [73][74][75]). This is similar to other tropical cities as Beijing, Changchun, and Hangzhou, China [1,8,11], Cameron Highlands, Malaysia [76], or Shiraz, Iran [77]. In all cases, UHI phenomena are associated with the extension of the urban area, type of structures and material, density housing, and presence of areas with continuous vegetation within the city.…”

Evaluating the impacts of land use/land cover changes across topography against land surface temperature in Cameron Highlands

“…It has been observed that the intensification of agricultural expansion, settlement expansion, human activities, forest product harvesting, and mining are key contributors to land use in Cameron Highlands ( Fig 4 ). There are also the factors of government policies on the expansion of agriculture to eliminate poverty in the region; human population growth; and advancements in plantation technologies, arable soil, and climate suitability, which are the various underlying drivers of land use changes [ 6 , 29 , 35 ].…”

“…A preliminary study analyzing the connection between LULC and land surface temperature (LST) for the study area was extensively discussed by How Jin Aik et al [ 35 ] using multi-temporal satellite images of Landsat 7 and 8 to provide a better understanding of the LULCC in the highland regions. The results illustrated an increment of total urban area by 1.7% in 10 years, while farmland and agriculture rose by 7.71% significantly.…”

“…Due to the varying LST values, the decision to combine Landsat and MODIS data was undertaken to obtain an average between the two sensors. Further explanations regarding the decisions above are covered in the preliminary study [ 35 ].…”

“…Additionally, MODIS TERRA, as a validation comparison, was also used within this study. The method of deriving LST is explained in detail by How Jin Aik et al [ 35 ].…”