A comparative study of land surface temperature with different indices on heterogeneous land cover using landsat 8 data

Abstract

The temperature rise in urban areas has become a major environmental concern. Hence, the study of Land surface temperature (LST) in urban areas is important to understand the behaviour of different land covers on temperature. Relation of LST with different indices is required to study LST in urban areas using satellite data. The present study focuses on the relation of LST with the selected indices based on different land cover using Landsat 8 OLI (Operational Land Imager) and TIRS (Thermal Infrared Sensor) data in Varanasi, India. A regression analysis was done between LST and Normalized Difference Vegetation index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Soil Index (NDSI), Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). The non-linear relations of LST with NDVI and NDWI were observed, whereas NDBI and NDSI were found to show positive linear relation with LST. The correlation of LST with NDSI was found better than NDBI. Further analysis was done by choosing 25 pure pixels from each land cover of water, vegetation, bare soil and urban areas to determine the behaviour of indices on LST for each land cover. The investigation shows that NDSI and NDBI can be effectively used for study of LST in urban areas. However, NDBI can explain urban LST in the better way for the regions without water body.