4.6 Article

Assessment of Land Surface Temperature from the Indian Cities of Ranchi and Dhanbad during COVID-19 Lockdown: Implications on the Urban Climatology

Journal

SUSTAINABILITY
Volume 15, Issue 17, Pages -

Publisher

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/su151712961

Keywords

land surface temperature; climate change; remote sensing; sustainability; COVID-19; lockdown; urban heat island

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This study investigates the spatial-temporal variations of land surface temperature (LST) in the Indian cities of Ranchi and Dhanbad during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research findings indicate a significant drop in temperature during the lockdown period and a subsequent increase in urban temperature post-pandemic, highlighting the meaningful relationship between human activities and urban surface temperature.
An apparent increase in average global temperature is evident globally, and India is no exception. With the recent decade (2011-2020) arguably being the warmest, significant challenges due to rapid climate change have gained attention. However, notable spatial-temporal changes, especially with regard to land surface temperature (LST), were observed during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period, when a comparatively cooler climate was experienced in many urban centers. Assessment of LST, crucial in many heat-balance, land use, and climate change models research studies, depicts the near-surface hotness of the Earth's temperature at a given location. Thus, this study utilizes satellite remote-sensing data to investigate the spatial-temporal variations of LST pre and post-lockdown imposed during the COVID-19 outbreak. Unlike many existing research studies on the metropolitans of India, the study considers developing Indian cities, Ranchi and Dhanbad, as its study area. Accurate LST computation was performed using existing LANDSAT-8 OLI/TIRS images and judged using other parameters (NDVI, LSE) obtained directly from the thermal infrared bands. The LST assessment successfully estimated temperature variations in Ranchi and Dhanbad, depicting a significant drop in temperature coinciding with the lockdown period and subsequent increase in urban temperature post-pandemic, indicating a meaningful relationship between human activities and urban surface temperature.

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