CHARACTERIZATION OF LAND USE \ LAND COVER CHANGES AND THEIR IMPACT ON LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE USING REMOTE SENSING DATA IN EL-SHARQIA GOVERNORATE, EGYPT.

ABSTRACT
The changes in Land Use\ Land Cover (LULC) have significant consequences, such as increased land surface temperatures (LST). The present research investigated how the changes in LULC affected the LST in El-Sharqia Governorate, Egypt using remote sensing data from 2001 to 2022. The studied governorate is located to the east of the Nile Delta and considered one of Egypt’s most productive agricultural areas. Nevertheless, the governorate underwent noticeable LULC changes whether through reclamation or urbanization due to the fast population growth. In this study, we used two Landsat images acquired on 2001 and 2022 to characterize the LULC changes in the studying area. Furthermore, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as indication of LULC was used to evaluate the impact of such changes on LST. NDVI data acquired from MODIS Vegetation Indices (MOD13Q1) was used as well as MODIS LST data (MOD11A2 and MOD11B3). Moreover, other factors such as air temperature affecting LST was also considered and their relation to LST was evaluated. The air temperature data was acquired from NASA's Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource (POWER) project. The results revealed that five LULC classes were found in the study area including the vegetation, water, fallow soils, barren land and urban area. Vegetation was the major LULC during the study period. Most of the change in the study area was due land reclamation and urbanization affected by the fast population growth. There was a negative correlation between LST and NDVI and correlation was stronger in summer (July) than in winter (January). There was also a positive correlation between the monthly LST and the monthly air temperature of the same months. Nevertheless, the correlation was higher in winter than in summer. Therefore, it could be concluded that both urbanization and global warming effect increases LST but in winter the main factor affecting LST is air temperature while in summer the main factor is NDVI or the presence or absence of vegetation cover in the studied area.