The effect of land use change on the formation of heat islands using remote sensing(Case study: Kerman)

Land use change is one of the factors affecting changes in the environmental parameters, such as land surface temperature. This increase in surface temperature severely affects human life, its health, and the ecosystem around it. In this regard, the present study was conducted to investigate the trend of landuse changes in the urban area of Kerman City and the resulting effects on surface temperature using Landsat OLI and TM satellite data from a period of 1990 to 2020. To achieve this goal, landuse changes in the six major classes of Residential and Man-made areas, Vegetation, Barrenlands with low vegetation, and Saline-lands without vegetation were studied. The results showed that in the study period, Residential and Man-made areas increased by 14.20%, and Vegetation landuses, Barrenlands with low vegetation, and Saline-lands without vegetation also decreased by 3.76, 8.23 and 2.22 percent, respectively.  The landuse changes were detected with a 0.87 kappa coefficient and overall accuracy above 0.90, which indicates sufficient accuracy in classification.The results showed that during the study period, the average value of the LST index increased from 42.26 ° C in 1990 to 47.4 ° C in 2020. The area of the classes above 33 ° C LST has also increased from 6.33% in 1990 to around 31.46% in 2020. The values of the NDVI index were decreasing until 2010, but by 2020, the value of this index has increased again. Node-wise, the study also showed that in 1990, the highest value of land surface was related to Saline-lands without vegetation with an average temperature of 47.30 ° C while in 2000, 2010, and 2020, the highest average temperatures with values of 46.51, 47.30, and 50.64 ° C were respectively related to Urban and Man-made areas. Accordingly, the results obtained in this study can significantly help urban administrators and policymakers with sustainable development and minimize the effects of Kerman's urban heat island.