Abstract:
Assessment of the impact of urbanization on land surface temperatureand local environment of the city are the major concemnow days for environmental scientist and planners due to risingtrend of urban temperature and its effect are very serioushealth issues in the urban setup.In this study, impact of urbanization over a time and its effect on increasing trend of temperatureand effect on urban ecology has been assessedfor the pre-monsoon season using the Landsat 7 and Landsat 8satellite datasets and field survey ofLucknow city, India. Land surface temperature (LST) estimation, land use change map, assessment of vegetation cover using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and ecological evaluation of the city was carried out using the Urban ThermalField Variance Index (UTFVI). Results indicated that the spatial distribution of the land surface temperaturewas affected by the land use/land cover change and anthropogenic causes. The mean land surfacetemperature difference between the years 2000 and 2017 was found 17.41% (6.16 °C). The observed resultsshowed that the outer part of the city exhibited the highest surface temperature compared to the central area due to harvesting of crops in the pre monsoon season, the areas having dense built-up also displayed higher temperatures and the areascovered by vegetation and water bodies exhibited lower temperatures. Strong correlation is observed between land surface temperatures (LSTs) with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and UTFVI. Isotherm maps are also plotted for the study area for both the years.The observed LST of the area also validated trough the Google Earth Images. Ecological evaluation of thearea showed that the city has worst ecological index in the barren area in the outer of the city. The present
study provides very scientific information on impact of urbanization andanthropogenic activities which causes major changes on the entire ecosystem of the city in the pre monsoon season.
