An investigation of the relationship between surface albedo and urban cover types in a semi-arid region

Abstract

Surface albedo, is a key parameter controlling the local energy budget, which in turn plays an important role in mitigating the effect of urban heat islands. This paper aimed to examine the relationship of surface albedo to major land cover categories, which include built-up areas, green covers, water bodies, and bare land. This study provides a new approach by using a 30 m spatial resolution of Landsat data over the study area, Baghdad, and relating surface albedo to the metrics of four biophysical parameters: Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Modified Normalised Difference Water Index (MNDWI), Normalised Difference Build-up Index (NDBI) and Normalised Difference Barren Index (NDBaI). A linear regression was generated to assess the correlation of surface albedo with these four biophysical parameters, and the results showed a strong positive correlation between surface albedo and both NDBI, and the NDBal (r = 0.62 and r = 0.95, respectively), and a moderate correlation with NDVI (r = 0.4). There was also a strong negative correlation of surface albedo with MNDWI (r = – 0.81).