Land cover and Land Surface Temperature interactions in desert areas: A case study of Abu Dhabi (UAE)

Remote sensing data from both LANDSAT and ASTER sensors were used to assess land cover-temperature interactions in Abu Dhabi metropolitan area in 1986 and 2008. The analysis has been performed through the retrieval of Land Surface Temperature (LST) and its correlation with Impervious Surface Area (ISA) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The results showed how the impact of vegetation (mainly derived from landscape activities) as well as the contribution of builtup areas, especially tall buildings (which channel the wind flow and shadowing) keep the temperature lower respect to desert areas. At district detail, the analysis of the builtup areas on the main island presented a lower temperature respect to the suburbs: increasing the ISA percentage, the temperature rose from the ISA class 20–40 %‥