Seasonal Variation and Land-Use/Land-Cover Type Impacts on the Correlation of Urban Heat Island Intensity and Difference Vegetation Index with Satellite Data in Xi’an, China

Abstract

Green coverage has pronounced influences on urban heat island (UHI) effect, while the impacts of seasonal variation and Land-Use/Land-Cover (LULC) types on this effect has not been implemented. This paper investigated the spatio-seasonal characteristics of urban thermal environment and the vegetation-soil mixed area, and then explored the effects of vegetation status on UHI intensity from the perspectives of seasons and regions in Xi’an using four Landsat 8 images. UHI intensity index was implemented to extract UHI intensity based on thermal infrared imagery, and difference vegetation index (DVI) was used to represent vegetation-soil mixed area. Results indicated that DVI has impacts on UHI intensity, and their relations vary with season and region. In the whole Xi’an, if UHI intensity is smaller than -0.1, DVI increases with the increase of UHI intensity; whereas for UHI intensity is greater than -0.1, DVI decreases with increases of the UHI intensity from early spring to autumn. The highest correlation level was discovered in the autumn map (R²=0.713). Results of correlation analysis further displayed that DVI positively correlated with UHI intensity at impervious surface, and that the main urban area possessed the best correlation with R²=0.564 5.