Measuring the Urban Land Surface Temperature Variations Under Zhengzhou City Expansion Using Landsat-Like Data

Abstract

Satellite-based remote sensing technologies are utilized extensively to investigate urban thermal environment under rapid urban expansion. Current Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data are, however, unable to adequately represent the spatially detailed information because of its relatively coarser spatial resolution, while Landsat data cannot explore the temporally continued analysis due to the lower temporal resolution. Combining MODIS and Landsat data, “Landsat-like” data were generated by using the Flexible Spatiotemporal Data Fusion method (FSDAF) to measure land surface temperature (LST) variations, and Landsat-like data including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Built Index (NDBI) were generated to analyze LST dynamic driving forces. Results show that (1) the estimated “Landsat-like” data are capable of measuring the LST variations; (2) with the urban expansion from 2013 to 2016, LST increases ranging from 1.80 °C to 3.92 °C were detected in areas where the impervious surface area (ISA) increased, while LST decreases ranging from −3.52 °C to −0.70 °C were detected in areas where ISA decreased; (3) LST has a significant negative correlation with the NDVI and a strong positive correlation with NDBI in summer. Our findings can provide information useful for mitigating undesirable thermal conditions and for long-term urban thermal environmental management.