The influence of urban form on the spatiotemporal variations in land surface temperature in an arid coastal city

Abstract

This article explores using satellite images to monitor spatiotemporal variations in temperature related to urban form. Land surface temperatures (LST) were estimated from Landsat images (1986–2016) and the land cover and urban form LST were extracted by using samples representing different urban forms/cover types. A transect of 20 km was taken across the city to derive the LST across the different land cover types. Urban heat island index and statistical analysis were carried out to understand the influence of urban form and cover on changes in surface temperature. The results are compared with temperature regimes of an industrial city (Yanbu) to depict differences in the two cities. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) shows variations, at 0.01 level of significance, in the LST values of the city centre, high-rise, low-density, vegetation, desert and industrial land-use types. The outcome of the study is valuable for decision-makers in achieving sustainable urban development.

Keywords:

• Landsat
• land surface temperature
• urban form
• urban heat island
• urban cover/material

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the USGS EROS Center for making the data used in this study available. The authors are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers. This article is an extended and revised version of a conference presentation at the International Remote Sensing Conference in Saudi Arabia, 17–19 January, 2016, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.