Study of the Urban Heat Island effect in Cyprus by using Earth Observation

Urbanization activities and their effects in Cyprus are more pronounced in the last 35 years, leading to a drastic change of the local climate of Cyprus’ main cities. Indeed, the contrast of energy absorption between developed urban areas and surrounding rural areas results in a variation of the local climate. The monitoring of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) is essential in the effort to produce heat maps of the urban area of Limassol, a town on the south coast of Cyprus. The area affected by UHI must be examined systematically in order to extract information that is vital in assisting decision- and policy-makers to adopt effective mitigation strategies and improve urban planning. This study presents the findings from the literature review of studying the UHI using earth observation, and reports on the results of the UHI effects for the whole Cyprus area, by using Landsat-5/8 TM & Sentinel-3 satellite images. NDVI calculations were conducted to derive the Fraction of Vegetation (FV) and calculate Emissivity over the last 20 years (2003-2023). Urban heat Island determination between several cities in Cyprus is presented in this study.  The results of this study are intended for use by the local authorities in support of the proposed revision of the local plans for the area by proposing a new ‘sustainability index‘ that uses UHI for urban planning purposes.