The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has undergone major urban transformation after the establishment of the country in 1971. One noticeable change is urban expansion in terms of massive infrastructure, including new residential areas, highways, airports, and sophisticated transportation systems. Major landscape changes and disturbances, such as urban development, are among the major contributors to global climate change. Urban areas can be 3.5 ° C - 4.5 ° C warmer than neighboring rural areas, a phenomenon known as urban heat islands (UHIs). As such, urban development in the UAE was expected to follow a similar pattern and to be a major contributor to the country’s impact on global climate change. Analyses of multi-temporal (1988-2017) land surface temperature (LST) data obtained from Landsat satellite datasets over a desert city in the UAE showed unexpected results. Urbanization of desert surfaces in the study area led to a decrease of 3 ° C - 5 ° C in the overall LST. This was attributed to the associated expansion of green spaces in the newly developed urban areas, the expansion of date plantations and perhaps a cooling in the previously desert surface. Therefore, the UHI effect was not well demonstrated in the studied desert surfaces converted to urban areas.
Li, Z.-L., Tang, B.-H., Wu, H., Ren, H., Yan, G., Wan, Z., Trigo, I.F. and Sobrino, J.A. (2013) Satellite-Derived Land Surface Temperature: Current Status and Perspectives. Remote Sensing of Environment, 131, 14-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.12.008
Srivastava, P., Majumdar, T. and Bhattacharya, A.K. (2010) Study of Land Surface Temperature and Spectral Emissivity Using Multi-Sensor Satellite Data. Journal of Earth System Science, 119, 67-74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-010-0002-0
Chander, G., Markham, B.L. and Helder, D.L. (2009) Summary of Current Radiometric Calibration Coefficients for Landsat mss, tm, etm+, and eo-1 Ali Sensors. Remote Sensing of Environment, 113, 893-903. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2009.01.007
Weng, Q. (2009) Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing for Urban Climate and Environmental Studies: Methods, Applications, and Trends. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 64, 335-344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2009.03.007
Estoque, R.C., Murayama, Y. and Myint, S.W. (2017) Effects of Landscape Composition and Pattern on Land Surface Temperature: An Urban Heat Island Study in the Megacities of Southeast Asia. Science of the Total Environment, 577, 349-359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.10.195
Nichol, J. (2009) An Emissivity Modulation Method for Spatial Enhancement of Thermal Satellite Images in Urban Heat Island Analysis. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 75, 547-556. https://doi.org/10.14358/PERS.75.5.547
Merlin, O., Duchemin, B., Hagolle, O., Jacob, F., Coudert, B., Chehbouni, G., Dedieu, G., Garatuza, J. and Kerr, Y. (2010) Disaggregation of Modis Surface Temperature over an Agricultural Area Using a Time Series of Formosat-2 Images. Remote Sensing of Environment, 114, 2500-2512. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2010.05.025
Buyantuyev, A. and Wu, J. (2010) Urban Heat Islands and Landscape Heterogeneity: Linking Spatiotemporal Variations in Surface Temperatures to Land-Cover and Socioeconomic Patterns. Landscape Ecology, 25, 17-33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-009-9402-4
Zhang, X., Estoque, R.C. and Murayama, Y. (2017) An Urban Heat Island Study in Nanchang City, China Based on Land Surface Temperature and Social-Ecological Variables. Sustainable Cities and Society, 32, 557-568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2017.05.005
Seto, K.C., Guneralp, B. and Hutyra, L.R. (2012) Global Forecasts of Urban Expansion to 2030 and Direct Impacts on Biodiversity and Carbon Pools. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109, 16083-16088. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1211658109
Muthamilselvan, A., Srimadhi, K., Ramalingam, N. and Pavithra, P. (2016) Urbanization and Its Related Environmental Problem in Srirangam Island, Tiruchirappalli District of Tamil Nadu, India-Thermal Remote Sensing and GIS Approach. Environmental Earth Sciences, 75, 765. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-5457-0
Corburn, J. (2009) Cities, Climate Change and Urban Heat Island Mitigation: Localising Global Environmental Science. Urban Studies, 46, 413-427. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098008099361
Choudhary, B.K., Tripathi, A.K. and Rai, J. (2019) Can Poorcities Breathe: Responses to Climate Change in Low-Income Countries. Urban Climate, 27, 403-411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2019.01.001
Stewart, I.D. and Oke, T.R. (2012) Local Climate Zones for Urban Temperature Studies. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 93, 1879-1900. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00019.1
Skelhorn, C.P., Levermore, G. and Lindley, S.J. (2016) Impacts on Cooling Energy Consumption Due to the Uhi and Vegetation Changes in Manchester, UK. Energy and Buildings, 122, 150-159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.01.035
Wilby, R.L. (2007) A Review of Climate Change Impacts on the Built Environment. Built Environment, 33, 31-45. https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.33.1.31
Shen, H., Huang, L., Zhang, L., Wu, P. and Zeng, C. (2016) Long-Term and Fine-Scale Satellite Monitoring of the Urban Heat Island Effect by the Fusion of Multitemporal and Multi-Sensor Remote Sensed Data: A 26-Year Case Study of the City of Wuhan in China. Remote Sensing of Environment, 172, 109-125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2015.11.005
Liu, H., Zhan, Q., Yang, C. and Wang, J. (2019) The Multi-Timescale Temporal Patterns and Dynamics of Land Surface Temperature Using Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition. Science of the Total Environment, 652, 243-255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.252
Wang, K., Wang, J., Wang, P., Sparrow, M., Yang, J. and Chen, H. (2007) Influences of Urbanization on Surface Characteristics as Derived from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer: A Case Study for the Beijing Metropolitan Area. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 112, D22S06. https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007997
Bonan, G. (2015) Ecological Climatology: Concepts and Applications. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107339200
Wu, J. (2008) Toward a Landscape Ecology of Cities: Beyond Buildings, Trees, and Urban Forests. In: Ecology, Planning, and Management of Urban Forests, Springer, Berlin, 10-28. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71425-7_2
Cao, X., Onishi, A., Chen, J. and Imura, H. (2010) Quantifying the Cool Island Intensity of Urban Parks Using Aster and Ikonos Data. Landscape and Urban Planning, 96, 224-231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2010.03.008
Hussein, K., Alkaabi, K., Ghebreyesus, D., Liaqat, M.U. and Sharif, H.O. (2020) Land Use/Land Cover Change along the Eastern Coast of the UAE and Its Impact on Flooding Risk. Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, 11, 112-130. https://doi.org/10.1080/19475705.2019.1707718
Al-Yaqoob, D. (2012) Simulation Study of Thermal Effects of Vegetation Covered Sand Dune Mounds within the Landscape around Urban Structures in the UAE. PhD Thesis, The British University, Dubai.
Bowler, D.E., Buyung-Ali, L., Knight, T.M. and Pullin, A.S. (2010) Urban Greening to Cool Towns and Cities: A Systematic Review of the Empirical Evidence. Landscape and Urban Planning, 97, 147-155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2010.05.006
Noro, M. and Lazzarin, R. (2015) Urban Heat Island in Padua, Italy: Simulation Analysis and Mitigation Strategies. Urban Climate, 14, 187-196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2015.04.004
Jorgensen, D.G. and Al Tikiriti, W.Y. (2003) A Hydrologic and Archeologic Study of Climate Change in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Global and Planetary Change, 35, 37-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8181(02)00090-5
Hall, F., Strebel, D., Nickeson, J. and Goetz, S. (1991) Radiometric Rectification: Toward a Common Radiometric Response among Multidate, Multisensor Images. Remote Sensing of Environment, 35, 11-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/0034-4257(91)90062-B
Nassar, A.K., Blackburn, G.A. and Whyatt, J.D. (2017) What Controls the Magnitude of the Daytime Heat Sink in a Desert City? Applied Geography, 80, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.01.003
Jimenez-Munoz, J.C., Cristobal, J., Sobrino, J.A., Soria, G., Ninyerola, M. and Pons, X. (2009) Revision of the Single-Channel Algorithm for Land Surface Temperature Retrieval from Landsat Thermal-Infrared Data. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 47, 339-349. https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2008.2007125
Staenz, K., Secker, J., Gao, B.-C., Davis, C. and Nadeau, C. (2002) Radiative Transfer Codes Applied to Hyperspectral Data for the Retrieval of Surface Reflectance. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 57, 194-203. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0924-2716(02)00121-1
Jimenez-Munoz, J.C., Sobrino, J.A., Skokovic, D., Mattar, C. and Cristobal, J. (2014) Land Surface Temperature Retrieval Methods from Landsat-8 Thermal Infrared Sensor Data. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 11, 1840-1843. https://doi.org/10.1109/LGRS.2014.2312032
Snyder, W.C., Wan, Z., Zhang, Y. and Feng, Y.-Z. (1998) Classification-Based Emissivity for Land Surface Temperature Measurement from Space. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 19, 2753-2774. https://doi.org/10.1080/014311698214497
Taha, H. (1997) Urban Climates and Heat Islands: Albedo, Evapotranspiration, and Anthropogenic Heat. Energy and Buildings, 25, 99-103. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-7788(96)00999-1
Lazzarini, M., Marpu, P.R. and Ghedira, H. (2013) Temperature-Land Cover Interactions: The Inversion of Urban Heat Island Phenomenon in Desert City Areas. Remote Sensing of Environment, 130, 136-152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.11.007
Issa, S. and Saleous, N. (2014) Satellite Image-Based Analysis of the Greening Impact on the Formation of an Urban Heat Island (UHI) in Abu Dhabi City. The Arab World Geographer, 17, 91-101.
Abdi, A.M. (2019) Decadal Land-Use/Land-Cover and Land Surface Temperature Change in Dubai and Implications on the Urban Heat Island Effect: A Preliminary Assessment. https://doi.org/10.31223/osf.io/w79ea
Julien, Y., Sobrino, J.A., Mattar, C., Ruescas, A.B., Jimenez-Munoz, J.C., Soria, G., Hidalgo, V., Atitar, M., Franch, B., Cuenca, J. (2011) Temporal Analysis of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) Parameters to Detect Changes in the Iberian Land Cover between 1981 and 2001. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 32, 2057-2068. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161003762363