Spatial and Temporal Analysis of the Thermal Islands of Maragheh City

The heat island is considered an important variable in climate and environmental studies. Today, population growth and urbanization are one of the factors that increase the air temperature in urban areas, which causes the creation of a heat island in these areas compared to the surrounding environment, whose effects can play a fundamental role in air quality and consequently public health. Therefore, in this research, the spatial and temporal changes of the thermal islands of Maragheh City during the periods of 1984, 1994, and 2020 have been investigated using Landsat satellite data. The results of the relationship between temperature and vegetation show that in 1986, the highest average temperature in the area without vegetation was 34.74 degrees Celsius and the lowest temperature in the dense vegetation area was 25.11 degrees Celsius. In 2020, the highest average temperature for the area without vegetation was 35.15 degrees Celsius and the lowest temperature for the dense vegetation area was 28.70 degrees Celsius. Also, the spatial autocorrelation index shows that the heat islands of the city had a cluster pattern at the 99% confidence level in all periods. Moreover, the results obtained from hotspots reveal that hot spots were located in the center, southeast, and northwest of the city, and cold spots were located in the south and north of the city at a confidence level of 99%.