Abstract
Vegetation cover and population density and its variability characteristics in National Capital Region, NCR, India have major effects on thermal environments, mainly on land surface temperature (LST). There are very few meteorological stations to record the surface temperature in earlier periods, and they may not be the true representation for NCR region. In such cases, LST derived from thermal satellite data is useful to study the LST variability across the NCR region, an important parameter for urban micro-climate. Satellite images from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) used to obtain Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and LST map to determine the impact of those parameters on LST variability. Higher NDVI reveals the lower LST and vice versa. The high LST-NDVI negative correlation was observed during monsoon season. Statistical analysis of nighttime LST with population density shows that population growth tends to lead to urban LST rise or Urban Heat Island (UHI) strength, as well as effects NCR micro-climate. The high population density is one of the key contributing factors for NCR's high surface temperature, UHI intensity and also micro-climate. The study shows that the seasonal distribution of LST needs to be overcome with the high vegetation cover and some other appropriate mitigation measures. One way of mitigating such seasonal peripheral thermal effects could be to adopt better cropping practices in order to minimize the agricultural fallow period and promoting green roofing concepts in urban areas and using porous concrete for construction which might help to mitigate impacts of high LST in urban areas of NCR. The results of these studies may be useful in assessing and resolving the microclimate problem and in reducing the impact of UHI and also provide supporting data for NCR's urban planning and environmental research.