Urban Heat Island and Land Use Land Cover Dynamics in Hyderabad, Telangana: A Geospatial Analysis

Global warming has obtained more and more attention because the global mean surface temperature has increased since the late 19th century. As more than 60 of the human population lives in cities and metropolises, urbanization has become an important contributor to global warming. Hyderabad is one of the regions experiencing rapid urbanization that has redounded remarkably. The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect will undoubtedly have an impact on the local climate, environment, and socio-economic development. Land-use/land-cover changes are the most vulnerable factor in any developing urban environment. The pattern of land use in a particular area or region keeps changing continuously because of its connection with multitudinous factors, for example, natural and human-made processes. Land-use/land-cover change may affect the environment and also impact bare land use. Increased structure and population density tend to alter the land features, which will have an impact on the thermal terrain and increase the impermeable layer. This investigation has taken the initiative to conduct research in the Hyderabad Metropolitan Area (HDMA). Hyderabad is the fifth largest metro city in India and one of the rapidly urbanizing areas of South Asia and the capital of Telangana. Results show that the UHI effect has become more prominent in areas of rapid urbanization in the city. The spatial distribution of heat islands has changed from a mixed pattern, where bare land, semi-bare land, and land under development were warmer than other surface types, to increase UHI. The analysis showed that the advanced temperatures in the UHI were located in a scattered pattern, which was related to certain land-cover types. This study uses a quantitative approach to look at the relationship between temperature and a number of indicators, such as the Normal Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), in order to figure out how UHI affects changes in land cover.