A RSGIS BASED ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF GREEN AREA EXPANSION ON LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE IN ABU DHABI CITY, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

摘要

Two Landsat scenes (acquired on May 21, 1986 and May 19, 2000) were used to examine differences in surface temperature inside and outside the city of Abu Dhabi, and to examine a potential relationship between vegetation abundance and drop in temperatures. Land cover maps of Abu Dhabi city and its surroundings spanning the period 1986 - 2000 are created using multispectral classification. Vegetation abundance maps using the vegetation fraction index and surface temperature maps from Landsat are created to study their spatial relationships using GIS based multivariate statistical analysis. Differences in surface temperature between urban areas and their non-urban surroundings are also studied to assess any UH1 effect. A map showing the magnitude of UHI effect is created and linked to the vegetation abundance map. Results show that the UHI effect in major UAE urban centers is minimal. However, more investigation is needed to confirm this hypothesis for other cities in the country.