Analysis of Urban Heat Island of Jos and Environs Using Remotely Sensed Data

Abstract

As a result of the increasing human population especially in the urban areas, and the pressure exacted on land as a result of urbanization, surface temperature is very likely to increase in both frequency and intensity. In most urban areas, this rise in temperature will result to Urban Heat Island (UHI) and this has the potential to negatively influence the health and welfare of urban residents. This study aims at analysing the Urban Heat Island of Jos metropolis and its effect on vegetation and built-up areas. In order to analyse the effects of UHI in the study area, Landsat OLI/TIRS and ETM+ data for the period 2000 – 2018 were utilized in order to retrieve Land Surface Temperature (LST) and the Land Use and Land cover (LULC). The association between LST and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as well as the Normalized Difference Build-Up Index (NDBI) was also assessed. Results show a weak correlation between LST and NDVI, which corroborates findings from earlier researches that vegetation does influence the formation or otherwise of UHI while there exist a strong correlation between LST and NDBI. This is evident as results indicate that the effect of UHI in Jos is more prominent in compacted built-up areas compared to the surrounding rural areas. The UHI effect from Landsat data shows an average increase of 6.75oC in surface temperature between 2000 and 2018. The study recommends that increased vegetation should be encouraged in the study area to reduce the effect of UHI.

Keywords: LST, UHI, NDVI, NDBI, Landsat OLI, TIRS, ETM+