Investigation of the effect of urbanization on land surface temperature example of Bursa

Abstract

Today, industrialization and urbanization in large cities cause an increase in the surfaces covered with man-made objects such as concrete and asphalt. The expansion of urban areas and increase in the using materials with high heat storage properties, directly affect the Land Surface Temperature (LST), which shows an increase in the sensible temperature of the region. LST is directly connected to the natural green vegetation of the land and varies widely in large urban areas, these differences related to the temperature is defined as the ‘urban heat island’. In this study, it was investigated the temporal variation of land surface temperature due to urbanization. Bursa, which is considered as a study area, has shown a rapid population increase since 1990 and a rapid increase in the number of buildings with the impact of urbanization and industrialisation. To determine the effect of this urbanization and industrialisation on land surface temperature, temporal change analysis of the surface temperature in the Bursa was observed with Landsat satellite images of 1988, 1998, 2008 and 2018. From produced maps, it was observed that the amount of green vegetation in urban areas decreased and as a consequence of this decrease, the surface temperature increased in the urban areas.