Investigation of the effect of land-use/cover changes on land surface temperature (a case study of Eskişehir)

Land use and land cover (LU/LC) is constantly changing for various reasons. Especially in recent years, as urbanization, industrialization and agricultural activities have increased, the size and speed of change has also increased. In order to understand and manage these changes, which are very closely related to human and the environment they interact with, follow-up is needed. In this context, the Remote Sensing discipline provides the necessary tools and methods to detect changes in LU/LC and to evaluate the environmental impact of these changes. CORINE data and land surface temperatures (LST) derived from the use of remote sensing images obtained by ground observation satellites are important tools that can be used to detect land change. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the environmental effects of LU/LC that occurred between 1990 and 2018 for the Eskişehir province, and for this purpose, the change of LU/LC occurred in the 28-year period for the study area was determined by using CORINE data. As a result of the analyzes carried out based on 1990-2018 CORINE LU/LC data, the change of LU/LC in 320.103 hectare area was determined. According to the percentage changes of areas; the artificial surfaces class, agricultural areas class, wetlands class, and water bodies class was increased by 2.40%, 1.82%, 0.30 and 0.16% respectively; while class of forests and semi-natural areas was decreased by 4.66%. Over the years, with the effect of urbanization and industrialization, it has been observed that artificial areas increase, impermeable surfaces expand, while green areas decrease. In this study, the relationship between CORINE LU/LC changes and LST values was also investigated. As a result, it was revealed that the LST values of the areas converted to the artificial zones class increased, and the LST values of the areas transformed into forest and semi-natural areas, wetlands, water structures classes decreased.