Monitoring the dynamics of land use and land cover, and their impact on seasonal land surface temperature in the Upper Awash Basin, Central Ethiopia

Monitoring the dynamics of land use and land cover, and their impact on seasonal land surface temperature in the Upper Awash Basin, Central Ethiopia | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Monitoring the dynamics of land use and land cover, and their impact on seasonal land surface temperature in the Upper Awash Basin, Central Ethiopia Getahun Bekele Debele, Kassahun Ture Beketie This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6128770/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Urbanization and agricultural growth are causing significant changes in land use and land cover (LULC), greatly affecting the biophysical environment. Monitoring these changes is crucial for effective environmental management. This study examines the effects of LULC changes on seasonal land surface temperature (LST) in the Upper Awash Basin (UAB), central Ethiopia, using Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 7 ETM+, and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS data from 1991, 2006, and 2021. LULC was classified using the Random Forest (RF) algorithm, and LST was retrieved with the single-channel algorithm. Between 1991 and 2021, built-up areas expanded by 185.3%, and agriculture by 69.4%, while shrubland decreased by 55.8%, forest by 39.6%, barren land by 33.3%, and water by 13.7%. These changes led to higher mean seasonal LST, with summer temperatures rising from 20.1°C in 1991 to 26.4 °C in 2021 and winter temperatures from 23.6 °C to 29.9 °C. In 1991, no areas experienced LST ≥30 °C in summer, but by 2021, 21% of the area exceeded this threshold. In winter, areas with LST ≥30 °C increased from 38% in 1991 to 42% in 2021. Built-up areas had the highest mean LST in summer, while barren lands did in winter. Water bodies and forested lands consistently had the lowest LST across seasons. LST strongly negatively correlated with NDVI in summer and moderately in winter. It also showed inverse relationships with MNDWI and positive relationships with NDBI and NDBaI. These findings are valuable for land use planners, environmentalists, and researchers working on strategies for regulating LST. Change detection Land surface temperature Seasonal variation Biophysical indices Upper Awash Basin Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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