LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE PROFILING AND ITS RELATIONSHIPS WITH LAND INDICES: A CASE STUDY ON LUCKNOW CITY.

Globally, 54.5% of the total population was living in urban settings in 2016 and a projection indicates that if the same trend goes, then this population will be 60% in 2030. Natural land has been converted to impervious space rapidly which is altering the climate change. The main focus of the present paper is the study of Land Surface Temperature (LST) dynamics and its relationship with Land Indices, viz., Normal Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) which is found negative, Normal Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) which is found positive, Enhanced Built-up and Bareness Index (EBBI) which is found positive in Lucknow city on both time points of 1993 and 2019. This study also includes the effects of land indices on LST profiling in nine different parts and eight different directions to explore the spatial dynamics of city landscape. The NDVI is found higher in the southern side than any other parts of the city in 2019 because of high vegetation growth which resulted in reduction of LST by 4.42 °C to 5.76 °C as compared to parts of the city. The results of NDBI and EBBI exhibit high built-up growth in the landscape of the Lucknow city especially from city center to 13 kms (least growth in south-eastern side) from 1993 to 2019. The results indicate intensification of LST in the range of 0.26 °C to 2.24 °C between city centre and city periphery from 1993 to 2019. The findings of the present study will help urban planners and policy makers to adopt suitable measures for sustainable planning for Lucknow city landscape to reduce the adverse effects of LST. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]