The Impact of the Land Cover Dynamics on Surface Urban Heat Island Variations in Semi-Arid Cities: A Case Study in Ahmedabad City, India, Using Multi-Sensor/Source Data

Ahmedabad, a rapidly growing semi-arid city in India, exhibits unique surface urban heat island (SUHI) dynamics influenced by land cover changes. Unlike typical arid cities, Ahmedabad shows a negative SUHI during summer daytime due to higher rural land surface temperatures (LST), primarily caused by sparse vegetation and bare croplands. However, positive SUHIs emerge during winter daytime (0.4 °C) and nighttime in both seasons (up to 3.2 °C). A field campaign confirmed rural LSTs can exceed urban LSTs by ~5 °C, highlighting the need for careful biophysical interpretation. Despite urban expansion from 2003–2018, SUHI intensity remained stable, though its spatial footprint grew. Multi-sensor data analysis revealed no correlation between summer daytime SUHI and evapotranspiration in urban areas, but a strong negative correlation (-0.73) existed for LST and evapotranspiration.

Mohammad, P., Goswami, A., & Bonafoni, S. (2019). The Impact of the Land Cover Dynamics on Surface Urban Heat Island Variations in Semi-Arid Cities: A Case Study in Ahmedabad City, India, Using Multi-Sensor/Source Data. Sensors, 19(17), 3701. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19173701