The Effects of Land-Use Changes on the Temperature in a Watershed in the North of Ilam Province

Rapid population growth, land-use change, and industrial and urban pollution are currently among the most serious human-caused problems in the natural environment. On the other hand, the change in land surface temperature is a factor in assessing the quality of habitat, which is modeled on land-use change. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the correlation between short periods of land-use change and surface temperature. This study shows the role of different land uses in the study area by examining the effect of land use on temperature parameters during the statistical period of 2013-2019 in the northern watershed of Ilam province with two mountainous-plain parts and industrial location despite oil and gas industries. Random forest and machining algorithm techniques were used to prepare temperature and land use maps from Landsat satellite data of ETM and MODIS sensors with a spatial accuracy of 30 and 250 meters, respectively, in Google Earth Engine. The results showed that during the six years, the level of water, rangeland, agricultural, and garden land uses have increased by 0.15, 3.87, and 3.42 percent, respectively, and other land uses such as forests and barren lands have decreased by 13.33 and 0.11 percent. The temperature algorithm using the LST index and creation of thermal islands showed that the average temperature of the region in the base period (2014) was equal to 31.02°C, which at the end of the study period reached 31.88°C. During the six years the temperature has risen by 0.68°C. According to the results, climate and land use are affected by each other and each shows its effects on the other.