The impact of desert urbanization on land surface temperature in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Latifa Saeed Al Blooshi, Taoufik Saleh Ksiksi, Ahmed Nassar, Abdelgadir Abuelgasim

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has undergone major urban transformation in the past few decades after the creation of the countrys union in 1971. One remarkable change was in the area of urban expansion in terms of major infrastructure, new residential areas, highways and airports. It is generally believed that major landscape change and disturbance, such as urban development, is a major contributor to global climate change. It has been demonstrated that urban areas can be 3.5 to 4.5 C warmer than neighboring rural areas a phenomenon known as urban heat islands (UHI). It should be expected that the massive expansion in urban areas in the UAE would be a major contributor in the country towards climate change. This research investigates the impact of urbanization on land surface temperature (LST) within the desert of Al Ain, UAE using satellite data. Landsat image spanning the period 1988 to 2017 of the summer season for Al Ain City are used to analyze the changes in LST due to urbanization. It has been found, and contrary to published literature, that urbanization of desert surfaces leads to drop in the overall LST of the area. This drop is attributed to the associated expansion in green space within the newly developed urban areas as well as the expansion in agricultural plantations. The effect of UHI is not demonstrated well in the satellite data particularly on the conversion of desert surfaces to urban areas.

Original languageEnglish
Pages480-491
Number of pages12
Publication statusPublished - 2018
Event39th Asian Conference on Remote Sensing: Remote Sensing Enabling Prosperity, ACRS 2018 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Duration: Oct 15 2018Oct 19 2018

Conference

Conference39th Asian Conference on Remote Sensing: Remote Sensing Enabling Prosperity, ACRS 2018
Country/TerritoryMalaysia
CityKuala Lumpur
Period10/15/1810/19/18

Keywords

  • LST
  • Thermal Remote Sensing
  • UHIs

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Science Applications
  • Information Systems
  • General Earth and Planetary Sciences
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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