Impact assessment of urban development on urban heat island effect in Prague

Bc. Tomáš Sedláček

Master's thesis

Abstract:

This thesis examines the impact of urban development on the urban heat island (UHI) between years 2002 and 2016 in Prague by remote sensing approach. The main factors are the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the build-up index (BI) created by author and statistical data on the numbers of newly arrived people into individual urban zones of Prague. For the quantitative interpretation of the UHI, the urban thermal field variance index (UTFVI) was used, which also describes the degree of ecological vulnerability. Land surface temperature (LST) has been interpreted in two ways for better comparison with other factors. The first way is the difference between years and the second is the classification of individual years using Nature Breaks (Jenks) method. Individual urban zones have experienced different spatial development, so the author used the division into four concentric zones: downtown, inner city, outer city and outskirt. The image from 2002 was acquired by Landsat 7 (ETM +) satellite and the second image from 2016 was acquired by Landsat 8 (OLI and TIRS) satellite, both in the 30-metres resolution. For comparison it was necessary to determine the appropriate classification of the differences of the individual years, due to various influences of e.g. different vegetation period, swapping of surfaces, etc. For a better accuracy of results, arable land was erased from the final outputs before comparison was made. For the year 2016, extraction of impervious surfaces (IS) was carried out using a combination of BI and spatial data from the current Master plan (MP) of Prague. Thanks to the knowledge of the exact spatial reference of IS in 2016 it was possible to quantify the relationship between IS and UHI. Based on this relation and knowledge of the future development areas from MP, it was possible to predict the future development of UHI in Prague.The outputs confirmed that the development of UHI in the individual concentration zones of Prague was diverse. The large differences in population migration, the different amount of new build-up areas and the amount of vegetation caused no change in the downtown. Towards to the edge of city change grew and in the outskirt was extreme. The forecast has determined that this trend will continue into the future, as the largest spatial development will occur in the out city and outskirt. This thesis created a missing study of Prague, which examined the impact of urban development on the UHI with spatial references that were refined by data from the MP.

Keywords

NDVI, UTFVI, Impervious surfaces, Urbanization, Remote sensing

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 18. 4. 2018

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Mgr. Jitka Kumhálová, Ph.D.
• Reader: Jan Komárek, Ing.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Engineering

Master programme / field:
Landscape Engineering / Landscape Planning