Abstract

Land use and land cover (LULC) changes induced by human or natural processes drive biogeochemistry of the Earth influencing the climate at global as well as regional scales.  Drastic changes in the land cover with the decline in vegetation and water bodies due to anthropogenic activities enhances the heat emission from land surface and atmospheric temperatures  Increased land surface temperature (LST) is mainly due to increase in concentrated human activities, paved land cover or barren lands.Due to complexity of landscapes the sampling was difficult to derive LST and environmental response relationships. Temporal data acquired through space borne remote sensors has bridged the gap of temporal data for the entire earth surface. The current study explores the relation between surface biophysical parameters to sub-pixel thermal variations. The thermal infrared bands of remote sensing data help to retrieve LST, which are supplemented by ground based measurements. Analysis of LST with LULC indicates a negative correlation between vegetation indices and LST. The general trend in the ambient temperature of Uttara Kannada over the 31 year period was established. It clarifies that there was a fundamentaldrift of temperature rise in recent years, especially during the last decade.

Keywords: land surface temperature, land use, land cover, emissivity, NDVI.