Assessment of the Urban Heat Island Effects with LANDSAT and KOMPSAT-2 Data in Cheongju

Abstract

Land surface temperature (LST) is an important factor in human health, thermal environment, heat balance, global change studies, and as control for climate change. The objective of this study was to assess the influence of Urban Heat Island (UHI) Effects on the LST and NDVI in Cheongju, Korea. The aim was to evaluate the effect of urban thermal environment for LST comparison of satellite-derived and in situ measured temperature. In this study, LANDSAT TM and KOMPSAT scene were used. The results indicated that the minimum LST is observed over dense forest as about 21~25℃ and maximum LST is observed over industrial area of about 28~32℃. The estimated LST showed that industrial area, bare soils and built-up areas exhibit higher surface temperatures, while forest, water bodies, agricultural croplands, and dense vegetations have lower surface temperatures during the summer daytime. Result corroborates the fact that LST over land use/land cover (LULC) types are greatly influenced by the amount of vegetation and water bodies present. The LST of industrial area and urban center is higher than that of suburban area, so it is clearly proved that there are obvious UHIE in Cheongju.