Naïve geolocation of Urban Heat Islands in Aurangabad city (Maharashtra State) using remote sensing and ancillary data

Industrial growth in Aurangabad has spurred the migration from rural to urban areas, leading to rapid urbanisation of the area. Consequently, an increase in the ambient temperature has been felt. This paper presents a naïve method of geolocation of urban heat islands (UHI) in the Aurangabad-Phulambri tehsils using remote sensing datasets and other ancillary data. The method uses openly available satellite datasets from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) website named EarthExplorer. Elementary image processing, pan sharpening and processing with thermal based information using QGIS, help derive the areal hotspots are identified using temporal analysis. The existence of these hotspots and their reason are outlined after field visits. Finally, mitigation measures are proposed for avoiding UHI.