Land Use Land Cover Changes and Its Impact on Land Surface Temperature in Rajpur-sonarpur Municipal Area

Abstract

Abstract Rapid urban growth within short period of time creates havoc changes in land use/land cover (LULC) all over the world specially in developing countries. Numerous Indian cities are facing such type of problems mainly due to the unplanned and haphazard urban growth. The present study emphasizes on the LULC changes using satellite imageries from 1991 to 2021 at ten years interval and its impacts on LST (Land Surface Temperature) in Rajpur-Sonarpur Municipal area located in the district of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal. Results shows that positive changes have occurred only in case of built-up area and fallow land while negative changes have found in vegetation coverage, water bodies and agricultural land which were a dominant land cover classes in 1991 accounting 44.04% of the total geographical area. On the time being there is an increasing tendency of construction sites and built-up areas at the cost of vegetation coverage as well as the water bodies and agricultural lands which in turn increase the land surface temperature as a continuous process. So, to arrest the rising temperature and minimize the ill effects of such changes immediate thinking of new urbanism should be adopted and implemented.