Mapping and Analyzing the Park Cooling Intensity in Mitigation of Urban Heat Island Effect in Lahore, Pakistan

Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect has been widely studied as a global concern of the 21st century. Heat generation from urban built-up structures and anthropogenic heat sources are the main factors to create UHIs. Unfortunately, both factors are expanding rapidly in Lahore and accelerating UHI effects. The effects of UHI are expanding with the expansion of impermeable surfaces towards urban green areas. Therefore, this study was arranged to analyze the role of urban cooling intensity in reducing urban heat island effects. For this purpose, 15 parks were selected to analyze their effects on the land surface temperature (LST) of Lahore. The study obtained two images of Landsat-8 based on seasons: the first of June-2018 for summer and the second of November-2018 for winter. The LST of the study area was calculated using the radiative transfer equation (RTE) method. The results show that the theme parks have the largest cooling effect while the linear parks have the lowest. The mean park LST and PCI of the samples are also positively correlated with the fractional vegetation cover (FVC) and normalized difference water index (NDWI). So, it is concluded that urban parks play a positive role in reducing and mitigating LST and UHI effects. Therefore, it is suggested that the increase of vegetation cover should be used to develop impervious surfaces and sustainable landscape planning.