A climatological study of the spatio-temporal variability of land surface temperature and vegetation cover of Vadodara district of Gujarat using satellite data. Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nandkeolyar, Neha; Sandhya Kiran, G.
• Is Part Of: International journal of remote sensing. Volume 40:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 218
• Page End: 236
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: Remote sensing -- Periodicals; Télédétection -- Périodiques; 621.3678
• DOI: 10.1080/01431161.2018.1512766
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0143-1161

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In the present study, a comprehensive assessment of the spatio-temporal variation of day-time and night-time land surface temperature (LST) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of Vadodara district of Gujarat in India from 2001 to 2012 has been carried out using satellite data. A significant cooling trend was observed in the day-time LST, whereas the night-time LST showed a distinct warming trend. The entire geographical extent of Vadodara was classified into different night-time LST classes to quantify the extent of the hot pockets, and it showed a clear-cut warming pattern for all the months of the year with an increase in the geographical areas under higher temperature range. Further analysis of Diurnal Temperature Range (DTR) also revealed a strong impact of the urbanization process, with annual DTR showing a decreasing trend at the rate of 0.29°C year −1 . An analysis of the vegetation cover of the district showed that on an average, the NDVI of the district increased during the study period. However, a micro-level examination of NDVI values depicted that the type of vegetation cover had drastically changed. The maximum NDVI values for months from May to December for 2012 were much lower than those of 2001 and 2006, indicating a change in vegetation pattern of the district. An assessment of the area under different NDVI values exhibited that for all the months of the year (except September), the total area with NDVI values of higher range (i.e. +0.5 and above) had substantially decreased from 2001 to 2012. The analysis revealed that for some of the months like February, while in 2001, 45% of district exhibited NDVI values above +0.5, but by 2012, it had decreased to only 18%, showing a drastic change in vegetation type and deterioration of the extent of thick dense vegetation.