Investigation of the Effect of Urban Parks on the Urban Heat Island with Remote Sensing and GIS

The rapid urbanization of cities has led to a radical change in the use of land in cities with the accompanying climate change. It has formed urban heat islands, which have begun to be characterized by climatic conditions such as temperature, precipitation, humidity and wind that differ from the surroundings of cities. It is observed that the heat island effect is felt more intensively day by day, especially in large cities such as Ankara, where urbanization is increasing. It is possible to determine and analyze the urban heat island effect using satellite technologies. Google Earth Engine (GEE) is an online platform that enables remote sensing users to efficiently perform big data analysis without increasing the demand for local computing resources. In this study, NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and LST (Land Surface Temperature) spectral indices were analyzed using Google Earth Engine, remote sensing and GIS techniques in four important parks with different sizes and plant diversity located in the urban area of Ankara. The NDVI and LST results were then analyzed with zonal statistics. Although studies have shown that urban parks create a temperature change effect of about 1oC, it has been observed that the temperature difference is about 3 degrees C in this study. These results show that the urban heat island effect is increasing in Ankara province, where the effects of climate change are seen rapidly.