Investigating the relationship between heat island intensity and biophysical characteristics differences between built-up and non-built-up regions (Case Study: Cities in East Mazandaran)

Biophysical characteristics and surface temperature are the key parameters to monitor and evaluate the physical and chemical processes of the earth's surface. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between urban heat island intensity and different biophysical characteristics in built-up and non-built-up lands. For this purpose, the four Landsat 8 satellite images and MODIS water vapor product in dates of April 10th 2016, June 29th 2016, August 27th 2014 and October 29th 2016 for cities of Ghaemshahr, Sari, Neka and Behshahr have been used. Single-channel algorithm was used to calculate the land surface temperature. A band combination tasseled cap extraction was used to estimate some surface biophysical characteristics as well. Also, a new method has been used to extract built-up regions. Finally, LST and biophysical characteristics for built-up and non-built-up regions were analyzed and then, correlations between them and heat island intensity have been surveyed in four months. The result showed that correlation coefficient of relationships between LST and biophysical characteristics surface was 0/88. Increase of differences between biophysical properties in built-up and non-built-up regions causes increase of the temperature difference between the two types of regions and so, intensification of urban heat island. For this reason, temperature difference between built-up and non-built-up regions varied between 0.3st and lowest heat island intensity corresponding to Ghaemshahr and Neka were estimated 0.5768 and 0.03 respectively.