Evaluating the relationship between Urban Heat Island and temporal change in land use, NDVI and NDBI: a case study of Bhopal city, India

The present work evaluates the impact of land use changes in one of the important capital cities of Central India to understand the relation between land use practices and urbanization on the increasing trend of land surface temperature. Therefore, quantify the spatial changes in land use land cover (LULC) and Urban Heat Island (UHI) of the Bhopal city over 12 years (2008 to 2020) carried out considering multi-temporal satellite and field data. The Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-8 OLI/TIRS sensors were used to estimate the physical changes such as land use, normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI), normalized differential built-up index (NDBI), Land Surface Temperature (LST) and co-relate their interrelationship. It was found that the built-up area increased by 12.57% from 2008 to 2020, and vegetation increased by 15.95% from 2008 to 2020. It was also found that the bare rocky region has converted to vegetation by 22.95%. The Pearson coefficient between LST with NDBI was found to be 0.55 to 0.79. Pearson coefficient for NDVI association with LST was found to be negative, which varies between − 0.4 and − 0.7. The build-up area increase has been strongly influenced by the conversion of fallow land (5.84%) and bare rocky regions (22.92). Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) has also been calculated and found to be 4 °C higher in 2020 than in 2008. Overall, based on these findings, it is recommended to prioritize effective urban planning and land use policies that promote sustainable development and mitigate the adverse effects of increasing LST on the urban environment.