Monitoring and assessment of urban heat islands over the Southern region of Cairo Governorate, Egypt

Abstract

Differencing in both land uses and covers are basically occurred by urbanization and changes of land covers. It has a notable power on the climate, by incorporating with buildings, roads, and other impenetrable surfaces, urban areas have the higher absorption of solar radiation, and it stored larger thermal capacity and conductivity, so the heat through the day and freed night. Consequently, urban areas be likely to be wormer matched with the around rural areas. This temperature difference, in addition to the heat released by transport and industry, adds to the evolving urban heat island (UHI). Study area covers Cairo and Giza Cities, which have a rapid urban expansion over the past three decades due to a high population density, accelerated economic and industrial development. The primary objectives of this work are to map urban heat islands (UHI) intensity for study area using Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI thermal band for the periods 1984-2000-2015. Moreover, to find the relation between land covers with its change rates, land surface temperature (LST), and urban heat islands (UHI). The results exposed that the neural network method is the superior method to produce land cover maps of the study area. Results obtained illustrate the great urban expansion from 1984 to 2015; in addition to spatial and temporal variability in LST in those urban areas, (especially industrial buildings that released a higher temperature than its surroundings), besides, the sizes of UHI in 2015 are greater than 1984.