Abstract:

Quantitative analysis of the effects of different land use/land cover (LULC) types on the urban heat island (UHI) formation is very critical for urban planning. The UHI is typically characterized by land surface temperature (LST) through the use of airborne or satellite thermal infrared remote sensing. In this context, this research aims to determine urban heat island formation in Izmir by calculating LST value and to evaluate the relationship between LST values and LULC classes and their sizes using regression tree analyses. The main materials of the analyses are composed of three cloud free Landsat 8 images for the hottest summer period in Izmir as well as the Urban Atlas 2012 data set. The results showed that LST values were increased with the increasing proportion of artificial surfaces and decreasing the presence of vegetation and water for the selected three months. It is also found that there is a strong positive correlation between the LST values and mine, dump and construction sites. This research showed that such land uses not only destruct the natural and cultural landscape elements, but also increase the land surface temperature and adversely affect the urban climate regardless of their sizes in the whole landscape.

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