Land Surface Temperature Analysis over Akure

Abstract

The city of Akure has experienced massive growth in population over the past 30 years. The increased population has brought about modification in the land use and land cover leading to expansion in the urban area. This expansion has implications on the local climate of the area. This paper evaluates the urban expansion and its impact on Land Surface Temperature (LST) in the city of Akure from 1984 to 2014, using remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) approach. Land use-land cover and change detection analysis were carried out for the period 1984 to 2014. Results showed that the urban settlement increased by 9709.62 hectares while the forested area decreased by 7347.2. The implication of the urban expansion on LST reveals an increase in the mean LST of the area (from 24.96 ^oC to 26.47 ^oC) with the highest LST value occurring at the city center due to limited vegetative surfaces within the area. The LST also increased across the different land uses and cover over the thirty years of study. In examining the relation between LST and vegetation, the NDVI and LST revealed a strong negative correlation (value of 0.94 and 0.924) between the two for each study period respectively. It is therefore imperative that with the increase in population and the corresponding increase in urban settlement, policies preserving vegetative surfaces (forested areas) should be implemented at every level.

Keywords: Land Surface Temperature, Population, Urban expansion