Investigation of Land Surface Temperature Trends Relative to Land Use Changes in Dust Sources of South East Ahwaz Using Landsat 8 Satellite Data

Dust storms are known as one of the most important environmental hazards that affects various parts of the world. Following the intensification of dust storms in Khuzestan province, the internal sources of dust storms in Khuzestan province have been introduced in form of seven areas that southeast of Ahwaz was identified as the No.4 internal dust sources with the first priority of control and rehabilitation practices and the necessary executive measures for land reclamation in this region, including: management practices, biological operation and water distribution were on the agenda. The aim of this study was to investigate the land surface temperature (LST) changes and its relationship with land use changes as effective factors in creating a dust sources in south east Ahwaz. For this purpose, the Landsat 8 satellite data during the (2016-2020) were used and the land use maps of the study area were extracted using support vector machine (SVM) method and Split-Window method was used to extract the land surface temperature (LST) of the study area. The results showed that the area of barren land has been increased from 98.97% in 2016 to 99.81% in 2017 and has been reduced to 76.68% in 2020. The lowest areas of moderate vegetation, good vegetation and water bodies were corresponded to year 2017 which were equal to 0.05%, 0.01% and 0.03%, respectively. The highest areas of moderate vegetation and good vegetation were corresponded to year 2020 which were equal to 13.29% and 3.26%, respectively. The highest area of water body was corresponded to year 2019 which was equal to 7.73%. The results of mean LST estimation during 2016-2017 period showed 3.85℃ increase (from 32.62℃ to 36.47℃) and during 2017-2020 period showed 10.31℃ decrease, which reached to 26.16 ℃ in 2020. This trend has been affected by the land use changes, improved rainfall and the positive effects of modified measures taken to restore the vegetation of the study area.