Factors Contributing to the Formation of an Urban Heat Island in Putrajaya, Malaysia

This study investigates the alternative factors that induce the urban heat island phenomenon. The two approaches adopted in this study, are land use changes evaluation and historical climate data comparison. Land use/land cover and land surface temperature maps were produced in order to quantify the urbanization and its impacts towards the thermal behaviour of an urban area. The years 1999 to 2006 were seen as an urbanization period. Curiously, while urbanization continued in 2009, the surface temperature was actually lower than that of 2006; despite a consistent increase of vegetation. Hence, heat is not mainly regulated by the maturity of vegetation. It was also found that the sea level was notably high during 2006, suggesting that significant permafrost melting which was subsequently evident to the climate change effects. Therefore, the factors contributing to the formation of a UHI in Putrajaya were not solely caused by urbanization, but also due to other climate change effects. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.