Assessment of urbanization impact on urban heat island effect and rainfall for the Surat city.

Population growth and urbanization lead to urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon. Urbanization is occurring at a very high rate in the Surat city. Thus, the study of the urbanization impact on the UHI effect for the Surat city is performed in the present study through studying the impact of land use land cover on the land surface temperature of urban and sub-urban areas of the Surat city over the period May 1998 to May 2018. Also, these effects are compared with that of a nearby sub-urban taluka Kamrej, which showed that temperature in urban areas is more than that of the sub-urban areas. Aforesaid facts clearly showing the existence of the UHI effect in the Surat city. As urbanization contributes to climate change, its effects on rainfall are studied by comparing rainfall trends of urban and sub-urban areas of the Surat city and nearby sub-urban area Kamrej. Trend analysis showed that trend magnitude values are higher for the urban areas than sub-urban areas, indicating that UHI effect increases rainfall in urban areas. Hotspot analysis is also performed for the Surat city corresponding to May 2018 to recognize hot spots and cold spots. As the Surat city is highly urbanized, thus, hotspots are more than cold spots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]