SPATIAL VARIATION OF URBAN HEAT ISLAND INTENSITY IN URBAN CITIES USING MODIS SATELLITE DATA

Abstract. Urban Heat Island (UHI) refers to the occurrence of higher temperatures in urban areas than the neighbouring rural areas. The neighbouring land cover also has some influence on the urban temperatures. The present study focuses on the UHI effect observed in four different cities i.e. Bikaner, Hyderabad, Vadodara and Varanasi which were surrounded by different natural land covers using MODIS satellite images. Bikaner shows Urban Cool Island (UCI) and Varanasi show UHI during day time. Vadodara and Hyderabad do not show much variation in urban and rural LST during day time. However, UHI effect was found clearly significant during night time in the four cities. UHI intensity was calculated using night LST and found highest in Hyderabad and lowest in Bikaner. The relation of LST with % Impervious was studied which shows good positive linear relation when significant UHI effect was observed and negative linear relation when UCI effect was observed. The slope obtained from linear regression of night LST with % Impervious was compared with the UHI intensity in the four cities and found to show good positive linear relation. Therefore, % Impervious can be used to quantify UHI intensity in urban areas.