Spatio-temporal Analysis of Land Surface Temperature in West Tripura District, India

Land surface temperature is a crucial factor that affects many ecological and environmental processes, such as the urban heat island effect, the health of the plants, and the effects of climate change. An increase in global temperature and erratic rainfall has been observed as a result of the weather's change during the recent past. Understanding the Spatio-temporal change of the land surface temperature can provide us with insights for sustainable land use management, urban planning, and also aid in planning and formulating plans to combat climate change. The present study area is the most populated district in Tripura and has experienced some of the fastest transformation in urban infrastructure. This study's objective was to investigate at how the land surface temperature (LST) varies across space and time in the West Tripura District. Landsat- 8 OLI and Landsat-5 ETM was the source of data to investigate the purpose of the study. The LST data was derived from thermal bands of the satellite imagery using remote sensing algorithm in ArcGIS and NDVI was computed using NIR and RED bands. Upto the year 2020, steady rise in built up areas was observed with a decline in land cover until 2010. However, the year 2020 witnessed an increase in vegetation cover. Similarly, the land surface temperature revealed higher values till 2010 may be attributed to loss of vegetation cover and subsequent decrease in values of land surface temperature after 2010 may be attributed to afforestation and growing popularity of plantation schemes.