Urban Expansion and The Microclimate Characteristics Evolution of Lhasa

Abstract

Urban expansion is the process of growing urban population and expanding land for residential and productive use. Microclimates are small-scale climates with relatively uniform and changeable climatic characteristics. In the context of climate change on the Tibetan Plateau, the microclimate of Lhasa will respond to urban expansion. With the support of landset8 OLI_TIRS data, this study uses the unsupervised classification method ISO-data algorithm to extract information on construction land and calculate the intensity of urban sprawl. In order to analyze and investigate the evolution of urban expansion and microclimate characteristics in Lhasa city from 2014 to 2021, the radiative transfer equation method was chosen to invert the surface temperature and calculate the heat island effect characteristic-related index. The results of the study show that the area of built-up land in Lhasa city increases and the heat island intensity rises during 2014-2021. This study contributes to urban planning in Lhasa and provides a case study of climate change and cities on the Tibetan Plateau.