Conclusion

Land use changes leading to deforestation in central Western Ghats have not only altered the landscape structure but also its functioning evident from the enhanced land surface temperatures due to lack of microclimate moderation. The anthropogenic activities have altered the habitat and the impacts in the ecologically fragile region are long-term and non-reversible. Temporal land cover analysis is done through NDVI reveals the transition of vegetation from 96.13 (1989) to 89.07% (2009). Land use analysis is done using supervised classifier based on Gaussian maximum likelihood classifier reveals the decline of forests from 57.65% (1989) to 39.78% (2009). The study has related the changing land use to the changing land surface temperature at a temporal scale. Thermal signatures of different land use/land cover types in the study area helped to provide on their roles in contributing to heat phenomenon. Agro-climatic zone wiseanalysis illustrate that the extent vegetation in land use land cover has significant role in moderating the temperatures of a region. It is observed coastal and plain regions with lesser spatial extent of vegetation have higher temperatures than Sahyadri interior. The results indicate that there is an increase of surface temperature from 32.74 ^oC to 41 ^oC. The three decadal trends in ambient air temperature also clarifies raise in temperature in recent time periods. If these changes are not addressed then there will be future drought to be occurring under warmer temperature conditions as climate change progresses, which triggers potential extent of drought-induced vegetation die-off.The results presented here suggest appropriate land use planning to mitigate the increasein temperaturesby carefully crafting policies for managing anthropogenic forcing of the climate system.