| Popis: |
Human activities are responsible for almost 75% of the land cover changes depleting the natural resources globally. These land cover changes with decreasing vegetation and water bodies increase the heat emissions from the land surface thereby influencing the climate changes regionally and globally. This paper highlights the interaction and interlinkages between the land use changes due to human activities (Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15) and its consequences on climate changes (SDG 13) using spatial analysis techniques. In this context, the climate change of Växjö Municipality, Sweden resulting from the urban development is demonstrated through LST (Land Surface Temperature), NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index), NDBI (Normalised Difference Built-Up Index) and land cover changes as indicators through Landsat 8 data of 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020. The land cover maps prepared through Support Vector Machine algorithm indicate that the area of built-up had doubled during the study periods with decreasing openlands. The LST maps prepared from the thermal bands of the Landsat 8 data showed an increase in the mean surface temperature from 7.3℃ to 11.1℃ between 2014 and 2020. The study also aims to study the seasonal variations in the relationship between LST, NDVI and NDBI by making use of Landsat 8 dataset acquired during the spring, summer, and autumn seasons of 2019. Results suggest a strong positive relationship between LST and NDBI (0.74) whereas a negative relationship is found associated between LST and NDVI (0.65) and between NBDI and NDVI (0.71). Further the land cover and LST maps of 2014 and 2020 are used in the simulation of urban and LST maps of 2050 through Cellular Automata model to highlight the impact of urban development on the climate changes of Växjö Municipality. The simulation result predicts that the built-up area of 2020 might quadruple in 2050. The simulation analysis also predicted an increase in LST with increasing urbanization in the study region. This study emphasises that the land cover changes in the process of urban development is also a contributing factor for climate change in the study region which is evident from the increase in mean surface temperature (3.8°C) from 2014 to 2020. |
