Rural Habitats and Land Surface Temperature: The Case of the Big Meander Delta and its Surroundings

Year 2019, Volume: 14 Issue: 4, 160 - 171, 30.12.2019

Ebru Ersoy Tonyaloğlu , Birsen Kesgin Atak

Abstract

The aim of this study is to map the
habitats in the Big Meander Delta National Park, Bafa Lake Natural Park and its
vicinity, to analyse the spatial properties of mapped habitats and the relationship
between defined habitats and land surface temperature. The main materials of
this study are composed of Sentinel 2A (dated 11 August 2017) and Landsat 8
(dated 26 August 2017) satellite images, soil map and digital elevation model.
To achieve the purpose of this study, we employed vegetation analysis,
object-based habitat classification, determination of land surface temperature
(LST) values, and analysis of the relationships between habitats and their LST
values. In order to determine the relationships between habitats and LST
values, the Spearman correlation analysis and the Zonal statistics of the whole
study area were conducted. The results show that whilst the dominant habitat
types are Market gardens and horticulture, High-stem orchards and Standing
fresh water; Eastern Mediterranean Tamarix tickets, Sarcopoterium phryganas,
and Mud flats and sand flats constituted the rare habitats. The highest spatial
connectivity was provided by Standing Fresh Water, Running water and Eastern
kermes oak garrigues. Water and wetland habitat types have lower mean LST
values compared to habitats with little or no vegetation and salt marshes. Our
results confirmed that the presence of vegetation and water features as well as
their type, abundance and coverage are effective factors in the formation of
lower mean LST values in rural areas, too. However, the size of and the
distance between those habitat patches were not significantly correlated with
their mean LST values in our study area. So, further empirical research with
time intervals might be necessary to efficiently measure the relationships
between the spatial characteristics of habitat patches and their mean LST
values at different times in a year. In any case, we believe that this study is
important for initiating a monitoring research on the changes in habitats and
the associated land surface temperatures. Such a future work can help us to
provide early step for adopting suitable policies for either overcome or
minimise the local climate changes and other related problems.

Keywords

Climate change, Habitat mapping, Land surface temperature, Landsat satellite image, Sentinel 2A satellite image

Supporting Institution

Adnan Menderes Üniversitesi Bilimsel Araştırma Projeleri Koordinasyon Birimi

Project Number

ZRF-17044

Thanks

This study is supported by Adnan Menderes University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit (Project No: ZRF-17044).

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