Analysis of land surface temperature using Geospatial technologies in Gida Kiremu, Limu, and Amuru District, Western Ethiopia

Degradation of vegetation cover and expansion of barren land are remained the leading environmental problem at global level. Land surface temperature (LST), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Barren Index (NDBaI), and Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) were used to quantify the changing relationships using correlation analysis. This study attempted to analyze the relationship between LST and NDVI, NDBaI, and MNDWI using Geospatial technologies in Gida Kiremu, Limu, and Amuru districts in Western Ethiopia. All indices were estimated by using thermal bands and multispectral bands from Landsat TM 1990, Landsat ETM+ 2003, and Landsat OLI/TIRS 2020. The correlation of LST with NDVI, NDBaI and MNDWI were analyzed by using scatter plot. Accordingly, the NDBaI was positive correlation with LST (R² = 0.96). However, NDVI and MNDWI were substantially negative relationship with LST (R² = 0.99, 0.95), respectively. The result shows that, LST was increased by 5 °C due to decline of vegetation cover and increasing of bare land over the study periods. Finally, our result recommended that, decision-makers and environmental analysts should give attention on the importance of vegetation cover, water bodies and wetland in climate change mitigation, particularly, LST in the study area.