SPATIOTEMPORAL VARIATIONS IN THE IMPACTS OF URBAN LAND USE TYPES ON URBAN HEAT ISLAND EFFECTS: THE CASE OF RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract. Urban heat island (UHI) effect is considered to be one of the key indicators of the impacts of urbanization and the climate changes on the environment. Thus, the growing interest in studying the impacts of urbanization on changes in land surface temperature (LST). The literature on LST indicates the need for more studies on the relationship between changes in LST and land use types, especially in the arid environment. This paper examines the spatial and temporal changes in land surface temperature influenced by land use/land cover types in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Multi-temporal Landsat images of the study area, 1985, 1995, 2002 and 2015, were processed to derive land surface temperatures. UHI index was computed for the different land use/land cover types (high-density residential, medium-density residential, low-density residential, industrial, vegetation, and desert) in the study area. The results indicate a trend of rising temperatures in all the land use types in the study area. This is probably due to climate change. The industrial area has the highest temperatures among the land use types. The lowest temperatures are found in the vegetation area as expected. There is a need to implement mitigating measures to reduce the effects of rising temperatures in the study area.