Analysis of urbanization and climate change impacts on the urban thermal environment based on MODIS satellite data

Cities are exposed more and more to climate change from greenhouse gas induced radiative forcing, and localized effects from urbanization such as the urban heat island. Urban land covers as the biophysical state of the earth's surface and immediate subsurface are sources and sinks for most of the material and energy movements and interactions between the geosphere and biosphere. Climate change is considered to be the biggest environmental threat in the future in the South-Eastern part of Europe. The aim of this paper is to investigate the influences of urban growth on urban thermal environment as well as the relationships of thermal characteristics to other biophysical parameters in Bucharest metropolitan area of Romania based on time series MODIS Terra/Aqua and IKONOS data acquired during 2000-2014 periods. Land Surface Temperature (LST) is a key variable for studying urban land surface processes and surface atmosphere interactions, being a crucial component in the study of the surface energy and water budgets. Urbanization created an evolved inverse relationship between impervious and vegetation coverage, and brought about new LST patterns because of LST's correlations with both impervious and vegetation coverage. City thermal environment risk management strategies for mitigating and adapting to climate change must propose efficient plans to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and cool the city through changes in the built environment, land use, and transportation.