15. Geospatial Technology for Analysing the Dynamics in Microclimate with Special Reference to Land Surface Temperature of Tropical Cities: A Case Study

The environmental implications of aggravating urbanisation associated with the alteration of landscape are of grave concern of urban planners now. This crisis is acute in many regions in the world, especially in the highly populated tropics. Urban geographers and planners are centring on climatically receptive designs to reduce undesirable microclimates. It demands scientific studies to address the problems related to the ill effect of unplanned developmental activities in the city. This study is an attempt to examine the spatio-temporal changes in the land use and land cover especially the built-up area and their impact in the land surface temperature (LST). Landsat imageries of 2000, 2010 and 2020 have been used to estimate the LULC, LST, NDVI and NDBI. The chapter shows that there is a remarkable increase in the built-up area and the land surface temperature for the last two decades. The mean temperature in the district was 26.76 °C in 2000, 28.54 °C in 2010 and 30.38 °C in 2020. The study suggests that it is necessary to have more focus on policies which will give more emphasis to urban greenery or urban forest concept in the upcoming years in order to reduce the land surface temperature in the district.