Analysing the role of land use and land cover changes in increasing urban heat phenomenon in Chandannagar city, West Bengal, India

The current work attempts to understand the spatiotemporal patterns of the urban heat phenomenon (UHP) and its relationship with the transformation of land-use/land-cover in Chandannagar city of India in four different phases, e.g., in pre-monsoon and post-monsoon of 1988 and 2020 based on Landsat satellite data. To investigate the city's thermal and environmental conditions in a better way, UHP and non-UHP areas are identified separately. Moreover, multiple linear regression (MLR) and simple linear regression (SLR) models are used to envisage the predictability of land surface temperature (LST) by various remote sensing indices and UHP by built-up areas. The results assert that mean LST in both pre monsoon and post-monsoon from 1988 to 2020 has increased at the rate of 0.11 degrees C and 0.1 degrees C each year, respectively. Built-up areas, UHP areas and mean LST linearly increase in those directions from the city centre where vegetation cover and non-UHP areas decrease rapidly. Moreover, growth of multiple UHP areas, the highest increase in UHP intensity and good applicability of MLR and SLR models are observed in pre-monsoon than post-monsoon. Therefore the information regarding urban thermal environments is expected to be very useful for policymakers and urban planners in adopting suitable mitigation measures against unplanned urbanisation leading to UHP effects.