Change Detection in Land Surface Temperature Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques: A Case Study of Biyagama

Abstract

Several studies carried out by different scholars have proved that the world climate got hotter during the last years. Most of the temperature increases since mid- 20th century has been caused by increases in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations produced by industrialization. Other than that, urbanization caused to increase the area temperature because its transform the natural land surface with modern land use and land cover such as buildings, roads and other impervious surface. When considering about Sri Lanka, now a days Biyagama area is identified as a rapidly developing area and due to this reason most probably the temperature may be changed. But in Biyagama area, there is no meteorological observatory and data could be got from the Colombo meteorological observatory which is located near the Southeast boundary of the city. Due to failure of a proper mechanism to identify the temperature variation in this area, there may be makes some restrictions to analyse the spatial pattern of temperature and the temperature levels in the Biyagama area. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing data for assessing temperature differences in Biyagama area and examine the factors influencing the elevation of temperature in the Biyagama area. Thermal remote sensing has been used to measure the Land Surface Temperature and its capability in monitoring temperature and effecting microclimate in urban areas. In this study, bands of Landsat-7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 OLl & TIRS imagery obtained during 2001-2018 will be analyzed for the spatial distribution of changes in temperature in Biyagama area. The study showed the increment of Land Surface Temperature (LST) near the industrial area in comparison with suburban areas, also building is one of the factor that reflect more heat and it is responsible for raising the surface temperature. It is noticed that, Oil Refinery could be considered the main source of heat in Sapugaskanda area.