Satellite remote sensing data for urban heat waves assessment and human health impacts

Remote sensing is a key application in global-change science and urban climatology. Urbanization, the conversion of other types of land to uses associated with growth of populations and economy has a great impact on both micro-climate as well as macro-climate. By integrating high-resolution and medium-resolution satellite imagery with other geospatial information, have been investigated several land surface parameters including impervious surfaces and land surface temperatures for Bucharest metropolitan area in Romania. The aim of this study is to examine the changes in land use/cover pattern in a rapidly changing area of Bucharest in relation to urbanization since the 1990s till 2011 and then to investigate the impact of such changes on the intensity and spatial pattern of the UHI (Urban Heat Island) effect in the region in relation with heat waves assessment. Investigation of radiative properties, energy balance, heat fluxes and NDVI, EVI is based on satellite data provided by various sensors Landsat TM/ETM, ASTER, MODIS and IKONOS. A detailed analysis was done for summer 2003, 2007 and 2010 years heat wave events in and related impacts on human health. So called effect of "urban heat island" must be considered mostly for summer periods conditions and large European scale heat waves. As future climate trends have been predicted to increase the magnitude and negative impacts of urban heat waves in Bucharest metropolitan area, there is an urgent need to be developed adequate strategies for societal vulnerability reducing.