Discovering the Changes in Land Surface Temperature Caused by the Conversion of Agricultural Lands to Residential and Urban Use

The aim of this study is to understand the changes in Land Surface Temperature (LST) caused by the conversion of agricultural lands to residential and urban use. Landsat-5 and Landsat-8 satellite data acquired on 30.09.1996 and 27.09.2018, respectively, were utilized to obtain LST images. Single Channel Algorithm was used as LST retrieval method. The study was conducted in eight test sites where farmlands converted to residential and urban areas. These test sites are located in Ceyhan city, which is one of the districts of Adana province in Southern Turkey, and the total area size not only test sites of the study area is 28.51 km
²
. LST images were cross-validated with MODIS LST products and RMSEs were calculated as 2.5 K and 2.2 K for 1996 and 2018 LST images, respectively. Considering long term variations, the conversion of farmlands to residential and urban areas caused a distinctive increase in LST, which may lead to the changes in the regional climate patterns. This study showed that decision makers and city planners can consider LST images for a sustainable environment.