Assessment of Urban Heat Island Effects in Awka Metropolis, Anambra State

Abstract

This paper was aimed at assessing the magnitude of urban heat island in Awka metropolis using satellite derived data and shuttle radar topographic mission (SRTM) covering the study area. The land surface temperature was estimated using the low gain thermal band from Landsat imagery. Solar radiation characteristics were also calculated from the satellite imagery using solar radiation algorithm. The Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was used in determining the reflectance values of various surface types. The result showed that towns within Awka North and parts of Awka South experiences relatively high temperature within the range of 30 to 38oC more than the other towns. Awka city centre exhibited the highest temperature value. It was also observed that areas with high temperature value are relatively covered with artificial surfaces with low vegetal cover.

Keywords: Urban Heat, Surface Temperature, Awka , Solar Radiation, Landsat Imagery.