Investigation of the effect of urban expansion on surface temperature in Mersin city

Urbanization and industrialization, which is seen with rapid population growth in cities over time, causes the destruction of natural areas and transforms them into surfaces (concrete, asphalt, etc.) that absorb solar energy. Urbanization causes the temperature in urban centers to be higher than the natural areas such as agricultural lands and forests. This is known as the urban heat island and causes local climate change, air pollution, energy consumption, health problems. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of urbanization on the surface temperature of the city of Mersin, where there has been a rapid population increase recently. In this context, the Land Surface Temperature maps of the years 1990-1999-2007-2011-2018 were produced using Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-8 OLI satellite images. Also, CORINE land use/cover data were used to identify urban areas in 1990 and 2018. As a result of this study, it was observed that many natural areas were destroyed and transformed into artificial areas in 28 years period and as a result of this, an average temperature increase of around 6 degrees C was observed for Mersin city center.