Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Urban Climate
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/uclim

Identifying seasonal heat islands in urban settings

of Delhi (India) using remotely sensed
data – An anomaly based approach
Richa Sharma a,b, P.K. Joshi a,⇑
a
Department of Natural Resources, TERI University, New Delhi 110070, India
b
National Institute of Urban Affairs, New Delhi 110003, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Delhi, the capital city of India is a rapidly urbanizing agglomera-
Received 3 June 2013 tion. The city thus experiences various environmental challenges
Revised 17 February 2014 that are true for all the global cities. urban heat island (UHI) is
Accepted 21 May 2014
one such issue that the city is facing. Being a tropical city, Delhi’s
UHI behaves differentially in comparison to developed cold coun-
try cities. This paper analyzes seasonal variation in spatial patterns
Keywords:
Landsat TM of UHI in the semi-arid environmental settings of Delhi. Temporal
LST variation in distribution and magnitude of UHI was also studied
UHI intensity and analyzed with respect to land use land cover practices using
Anomaly Landsat TM data of all the five seasons (winter, spring, summer,
Seasonal variation monsoon and post-monsoon) for year 2010–11. An anomaly based
approach was attempted to quantify seasonal and annual UHI
intensities. Maximum and minimum seasonal UHI intensities were
observed in summer (intensity = 16.7 °C) and winter (inten-
sity = 7.4 °C), respectively. Mean annual LST anomaly map aided
in identifying UHI vulnerable locations in the city. Major commer-
cial and industrial sites across the city, and the airport area in
south experienced higher UHI effects and were found to be the
most vulnerable locations.
Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

⇑ Corresponding author. Address: Department of Natural Resources, TERI University, 10 Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New
Delhi 110070, India. Tel.: +91 11 2612 2222; fax: +91 11 2612 2874.
E-mail addresses: richa.sharma85@gmail.com (R. Sharma), pkjoshi27@hotmail.com (P.K. Joshi).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2014.05.003
2212-0955/Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
20 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34

1. Introduction

In recent years urban heat island (UHI) has become a topic of great interest both among the
academicians and the governing bodies. Researchers are interested in understanding the various
aspects of this phenomenon including its causes (Huang et al., 2011), impacts (Imhoff et al., 2010)
and complexity (Mirzaei and Haghighat, 2010). UHI is increasingly gaining interest as it directly affects
both environmental (Ferguson and Woodburry, 2007; Sharma et al., 2012) as well as human health
(Lo and Quattrochi, 2003; Tomilson et al., 2011). UHI affects the environment through heat pollution
(Papanastasiou and Kittas, 2012), it increases the number of smog events (Sham et al., 2012), higher
energy consumptions (Kolokotroni et al., 2012), while from human health perspectives it causes larger
number of heat-related health problems (Harlan and Ruddell, 2011) and adversely impacts human
comfort (Steeneveld et al., 2011). Additionally UHI has the tendency to elevate heat wave intensities
as observed in case of Chicago in 1995, Russia in 2003 (Sailor and Lu, 2004) and recently in Shanghai,
China (Tan et al., 2010).
UHI manifests itself in two basic forms (Table 1); (i) the Surface UHI (SUHI) and (ii) the Atmo-
spheric UHI (AUHI). SUHI is the phenomenon of temperature difference between surfaces of urban
and surrounding rural areas. The phenomenon exhibits high spatial and temporal variability
(Stathopoulou and Cartalis, 2009). SUHI is studied using land surface temperature (LST) retrieved from
thermal satellite sensors (Schwarz et al., 2011). AUHI encompasses difference in pattern of air temper-
ature between urban and rural settings. AUHI further falls in one of the two categories viz., Canopy
layer or Boundary layer. Canopy layer UHI influence the atmosphere extending from surface to mean
building height or tree canopy, while the Boundary layer UHI accounts for air beyond canopy layer
(Weng, 2003).
AUHI is studied using meteorological data (Saaroni et al., 2000). Such data have often been
explored to study monthly or seasonal variations in atmospheric UHI (Jongtanom et al., 2011;
Cayan and Douglas, 1984; Fujibe, 2009; Jauregui, 1997; Liu et al., 2007; Gaffin et al., 2008; Hua
et al., 2008). Gallo and Owen (1999) for instance, analyzed urban–rural temperature (using observa-
tion stations) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (using NOAA-AVHRR, National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration–Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) of 28 cities
on monthly and seasonal basis to study UHI. UHI intensity in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Songkhla cities
were investigated using urban and rural meteorological station data (Jongtanom et al., 2011). Cayan
and Douglas (1984), Fujibe (2009), Jauregui (1997), Liu et al. (2007), Gaffin et al. (2008), and Hua

Table 1
Summary of forms of UHIs.

Atmospheric UHI Surface UHI Authors

Prominent during night Prominent both during day and night Yuan and Bauer
(2007)
More intense during winters More intense during summers Imhoff et al. (2010),
Papanastasiou and
Kittas (2012)
UHI intensity is low UHI intensity is very high Grimmond (2007)
Studied using ground-based air temperature Observed using airborne or satellite Hung et al. (2006),
measurements taken from standard thermal remote sensors Voogt and Oke (2003)
meteorological stations
Best to study under calm and clear conditions at Satellite or aircraft thermal data of Roth et al. (1989)
night acquired at daytime when heat island
intensities are greatest
Boundary layer Canopy layer
Prominent at mesoscale Prominent at local and Schwarz et al. (2012)
microscale
Observed using tower Observed using screen Cermak et al. (1994)
sodar (fixed) and (fixed) and
aircraft, tetroon automobiles (mobile)
(mobile)
 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34 21

et al. (2008) have also conducted similar researches. Thus it is evident that elaborate work is available
on seasonal studies of atmospheric UHI, but such detailed literature for surface urban heat islands
(SUHI) is lacking. However a dearth of such literature exists for SUHI studies. Seasonal analysis of SUHI
requires temporal land surface temperature (LST) (Hu and Brunsell, 2013; Buyantuyev and Wu, 2010).
Very few and recent work is available on SUHI seasonal analysis with huge gap in this research
existing for Indian cities. Researchers have proposed various approaches to quantify UHI in terms of
intensity or area. Keramitsoglou et al. (2011) have used difference between LST and reference LST
(RLST) to assess UHI intensity. Zhang et al. (2009) calculated LST differences between different imper-
vious surface area categories and water as an estimate for UHI intensity. Zhang and Wang (2008)
proposed hot island area (HIA) as UHI intensity estimate that is based on standard deviation segmen-
tation of LST image.
So far, most of UHI studies utilizing thermal satellite data are carried out on single day imagery that
might not give the true picture of general UHI status in the city. This work however delves into differ-
ent season images and based on those looks at annual UHI vulnerable locations. This paper attempts to
add to the emerging body of knowledge on seasonal studies of SUHI (to be referred as UHI from here
onwards) with a focus on tropical city. Apart from studying seasonal patterns of UHI, this work also
aims at identifying its causal factors. For in depth understanding of the phenomenon, studies are
required at both qualitative and quantitative scales. Spatial distribution of UHI in different seasons
was studied for qualitative analysis of the phenomenon. For quantification of UHI, intensity of the phe-
nomenon was measured. UHI intensity (UHII) thus gives a quantitative measure of UHI. Thus, this is a
comprehensive study of seasonal patterns of UHI in a tropical semi-arid metropolitan city. It explains
the influence of heterogeneous land use land cover (LULC) on distribution of heat and cool islands over
the space (within the city at a time) and time (through various seasons).

1.1. Study area – Delhi

Delhi, the capital city of India, covering an area of approximately 1483 sq. km lying between
28°230 1700 N to 28°530 0000 N and 76°500 2400 E to 77°200 3700 E (Fig. 1). The city represents a flat terrain
with elevation ranging from of 213 to 305 m above sea level (Sharma and Joshi, 2012). River Yamuna
passes through the city dividing it in two parts with the eastern part often referred as ‘Yamuna paar’
(which means across Yamuna). City is characterized by highly heterogeneous land use ranging from
highly urban centers of commercial activity and residential areas to rural agricultural lands as shown
and described by LULC map of Delhi prepared using Landsat TM data (Fig. 2, Table 2).

Fig. 1. Location of study area.

22 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34

Fig. 2. Land use land cover map of Delhi.

Built-up characterize most of the central and eastern parts of Delhi. Scattered patches of newly
formed settlements (built-up) are observed in the northern and south-western parts of the city. All
together the built-up accounts for 569 sq. km. City has one domestic and one international airport that
forms part of open land category which comprises of exposed land, sandy areas and open lands that
are devoid of vegetation. This category covers 11% of total land use. A patch of forest is located at the
heart of the city (referred as ‘Lungs of the city’) (Mann and Sehrawat, 2009) and other scattered forest
patches are distributed in the southern part. The latter is notified as Asola Bhati Wildlife Sanctuary.
The forest patches (including Kamla Nehru Ridge in the north) together constitute a total of 101 sq.
km area. Of total land use, 102 sq. km area is covered by other vegetation characterized by city parks
like Lodhi Garden, Japanese Park and others, and is inclusive of roadside tree plantations. Rural area is
broadly exemplified by agriculture (including horticulture, floriculture, dairy and poultry farming
land) (297 sq. km) and agricultural fallow land (225 sq. km) traversing nearly 35.4% of total area. Rest
1.4% is covered by water bodies including river, lakes (e.g., Badhkal lake) and wetlands (e.g., Yamuna
Biodiversity Park).
Like any other city in the developing nations, urban population and area in Delhi is also rapidly
increasing. Population in Delhi has increased from 9.42 M (million) in 1991 to 13.85 M in 2001 reach-
ing 16.75 M in 2011. Of which 8.47 M, 12.91 M and 16.33 M was urban in years 1991, 2001 and 2011,
respectively (United Nations, 2012). The expansion of urban area is gradually encroaching upon non-
urban and agricultural land. Rapidly growing population and fast expanding urban built-up areas have
 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34 23

made the city an ideal target for UHI development. Understanding and analyzing the nature and
behavior of UHI development thus becomes imperative to the city planning processes and also to take
appropriate mitigation measures.

1.2. Satellite data used

According to Voogt and Oke (2003), thermal remote sensors are used to study UHI. These sensors
observe the surface emitted upwelling thermal radiance. As indicated in Table 1, SUHI in contrast to
AUHI can be best studied at daytime when SUHI intensity is supposedly highest (Roth et al., 1989).
Satellite data is being increasingly used for observing UHI, because such data have potential to capture
thermal responses of various land surfaces. Additionally their coverage is synoptic and periodical
(Tran et al., 2006). Thus satellite sensor data is used for spatial and temporal continuity for urban stud-
ies at much lesser cost. Many authors have utilized the potential of satellite thermal infrared (TIR)
information to study SUHI employing medium resolution sensors such as Landsat and ASTER
(Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) (Aniello et al., 1995; Bagan
and Yamagata, 2012; Li et al., 2012; Mallick et al., 2013; Nichol et al., 2009; Senanayake et al.,
2013; Song et al., 2001; Weng et al., 2011) to coarse resolution sensors such as MODIS (Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and NOAA (Cheval and Dumitrescu, 2009; Gallo et al., 1993;
Jin et al., 2005; Schwarz et al., 2011; Tomlinson et al., 2012; Zhang et al., 2010).
Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper) a medium resolution (30 m and 120 m) sensor is one of the most
commonly used satellite data for environmental studies. The data comprises of seven bands, six of
which are located in visible and near infrared regions (0.45–1.75 lm) and one band (Band 6) is
thermal (10.4–12.5 lm). This band is widely used to measure surface temperatures for a range of
studies including forest fires (Miller et al., 2009), climate change indicators (Paul, 2002), heat budget
(Ma et al., 2006), soil moisture, thermal inertia, insect-vector disease proliferation and others
(Anderson et al., 2012). Five Landsat TM5 satellite images for year 2010 were downloaded from USGS
website (www.earthexplorer.usgs.gov). The data was selected carefully to cover all the seasons and
should preferably be cloud-free. The details of the satellite data used and other meteorological data
on data acquisition date are summarized in Table 3.

1.3. LST retrieval from Landsat TM

LST was retrieved from thermal band using a mono-window algorithm (Qin et al., 2001; Sobrino
et al., 2004; Sun et al., 2010). It has the advantage of independence from radiosounding data. The

Table 2
Land use land cover category and details for year 2011.

Category Area (sq. Area Description

km) (%)
Built-up 569.18 38.2 An area of human habitation developed due to non-agricultural use and that has a
cover of buildings, transport and communication utilities in association with water,
vegetation and vacant lands
Agriculture 296.93 20.0 Land primarily used for farming and for production of food, fiber and other commercial
and horticultural crops. It includes land under crops (irrigated and un-irrigated,
plantations, etc.)
Fallow 225.36 15.4 It includes agricultural lands that are currently laid fallow
land
Forest 100.98 6.8 Forests are areas bearing an association predominantly of dense tree covers and other
vegetation types (notified forest boundaries)
Vegetation 101.85 6.9 This class includes vegetation other than agriculture and forest. It mainly comprises of
roadside plantations, residential/public parks or other natural vegetations
Open area 166.85 11.3 This encompasses land that is left exposed or open without any vegetation or scrub
cover (e.g., land left vacant pre-construction stage, or vast exposed stretches of airport,
etc.)
Water 21.41 1.4 Land covered with water and water bodies such as lakes, rivers or ponds
Total 1482.57 100
24 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34

retrieval process was performed in five steps namely radiometric calibration, calculation of
reflectance, calculation of brightness temperature, emissivity correction and final LST calculation.
Radiometric calibration was carried out using calibration constant values from Landsat handbook
(Chander et al., 2009). The radiance hence retrieved was converted to reflectance. All the six reflec-
tance bands were used in LULC mapping and band 3 and 4 reflectance were additionally used for com-
puting NDVI. NDVI was used to determine emissivity image (Valor and Caselles, 1996). The emissivity
thus obtained was employed to correct at-sensor brightness temperature retrieved from thermal band
radiance. This was done because at-sensor brightness temperature assumes unit emissivity and thus
the temperature estimated is for blackbody. NDVI was hence employed for emissivity correction as
given in Table 4 (Zhang et al., 2006).

1.4. Anomaly assessment

Spatial seasonal (AST) and annual (AAT) thermal anomalies were computed for studying UHII in the
city. Seasonal anomalies helped in quantifying UHI on monthly basis to study its seasonal variation.
Eq. (1): Computation of seasonal UHII.
!
X
i¼n
AST i ¼ LSTi  LST=n ð1Þ
i¼1

where AST is the seasonal temperature anomaly, ASTi is seasonal temperature anomaly for any pixel i,
LSTi is the land surface temperature for any pixel i, n is the total number of pixels in the image.
Annual UHII was estimated based on annual thermal anomaly computed using Eq. (2). This further
helped in identification of locations that are UHI vulnerable as these tend to remain hotter throughout
the year.
Eq. (2): Computation of annual UHII.
!
X
i¼n
AAT i ¼ MLSTi  MLST=n ð2Þ
i¼1

where AAT is the annual temperature anomaly, AATi is annual temperature anomaly for any pixel i,
MLSTi is the annual mean land surface temperature for any pixel i, n is the total number of pixels
in the image. MLSTi is computed as given below:
Eq. (3): Calculating mean LST.

X
k¼5
MLSTi ¼ LSTik =5 ð3Þ
k¼1

where MLSTi is the annual mean land surface temperature for any pixel i, k is any given season from
the total of five seasons under study. The seasonal and annual anomaly based UHII maps were then
analyzed to fulfill the objectives of this research. Fig. 3 summarizes the complete framework of
methodology adopted for this study.

Table 3
Description of data used and climatic variables.

Months Seasons Acquisition date Air temperature (°C) Relative humidity (%)
Min Max. Mean
January Winter 29/1/2010 14 26 20 44
March Spring 4/3/2011 14 22 18 64
April Summer 3/4/2010 25 37 31 18
September Monsoon 26/9/2010 23 32 28 66
October Post-monsoon 28/10/2010 15 29 22 42
 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34 25

Table 4
NDVI values for emissivity calculation.

NDVI Emissivity
Less than 0.18 0.985
0.18 to 0.157 0.955
Greater than 0.727 0.99

Fig. 3. Paradigm of the study.

1.5. LST validation

Ground based validation of satellite derived LST was done for March data. For this purpose a
rigorous field survey was carried out in Delhi. A total of 208 ground observations were taken across
the city. Correlation and regression analysis (Fig. 4a) between ground and satellite retrieved
26 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34

Fig. 4. (a) Regression plot between satellite retrieved and ground observed LST, (b) Taylor diagram for satellite retrieved and
ground measured LST values.

observations revealed a high correlation (r = 0.89) between the two set of observations. A regression
plot between the two sets (r2 = 0.79) indicates a high degree of agreement between the satellite
retrieved surface temperature and the ground based LST observations. A Taylor diagram was also gen-
erated to assess the proximity of retrieved LST observations with respect to ground observed ones
(Fig. 4b). The similarity or dissimilarity between the two set of observations was quantified in terms
of correlation, centred root-mean-square difference and their variation (through standard deviations).
The blue dot represents the retrieved measurements, while hollow dot on x-axis represents the refer-
ence ground observation. The correlation for the two sets of observation was observed to be approx-
imately 0.89 represented by outer arch. The RMS difference is symbolised by the light grey contours
which is less than 0.5 °C for satellite derived LST. The standard deviation for the two sets of measure-
ments is nearly same (approximately 0.72 °C). This also indicates a high degree of agreement between
the two datasets. Thus, the satellite data estimates the LST with higher degree of confidence and as
closely as measured during the field work.

2. Results and discussion

2.1. Anomaly analysis for UHI and UCI intensities

LST images were studied to analyze spatial patterns of UHI through five seasons; winter (January),
spring (March), summer (April), monsoon (September) and post-monsoon (October). The Table 5 sum-
marizes the minimum, maximum and mean LST values for each season. Winter season shows lowest
values for all the descriptive statistics (minimum, maximum and mean) of LST. Highest LST values are
observed during monsoon season. Similar results have also been reported by Cui and Foy (2012) for
Mexico City. A detailed analysis of monsoon image reveals that very few pixels have very high LST
and these too are clustered in exposed land of airport. During spring and post-monsoon, LST statistics
were intermediary as these are the transition seasons.
For each image thermal mean anomaly was computed, which was used as an indicator of UHI
intensity (UHII). The higher the anomaly value, higher is the intensity of UHI. More negative anomalies
indicated higher intensity of cool islands. Spatial shifts in UHI were observed over the seasons which
are attributed to seasonal cycles of vegetation, changes in solar angle, synoptic weather types, mois-
ture availability, crop cycles and differential response of various land use parcels to the seasonal stim-
uli of temperature variation and precipitation (Table 5).
 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34 27

Table 5
Summary of LST for different seasons.

Season Month LST(°C)

Mean Max. Min
Winter January 24.51 ± 1.97 31.92 18.14
Spring March 28.03 ± 2.54 39.80 20.80
Summer April 43.10 ± 3.17 59.27 30.90
Monsoon September 46.28 ± 2.80 60.06 37.58
Post-monsoon October 35.56 ± 2.58 46.10 23.13

2.2. Seasonal UHI and UCI intensities and distribution

Largest UHII (16.2 °C) was recorded for summer season when solar radiation is very high and most
of the agricultural fields are fallow. Fallow land tends to heat up easily due to its low thermal capacity.
The winter season experienced lowest UHII (7.4 °C) as this is the season when incoming solar radiation
is low as well the agricultural land is covered with crops and is rich in moisture. This results in
increased thermal capacity of the surface and thus heating gets slowed down. Fig. 5 shows the UHI
and UCI intensities during different seasons.
Cool island intensity was found to be strongest for post-monsoon (12.4 °C). This is attributed to
harvested agricultural lands where the fallow results in higher mean LST, but the overall incoming
solar radiation is not high and thus the heating up of other land surface is less. This results in higher
difference between mean and minimum LST for post-monsoon period which shoots up the UCII for
this season. UCII was weakest for winter season (6.4 °C) due to less heating of the surface as this sea-
son does not receive much of the solar radiation. There is not much variation in overall distribution of
LST during winters, which minimizes both UHI and UCI intensities for winter season.
Winter season data comprised of January month. Maximum UHII observed for this season was
around 7 °C and maximum UCII was found to be around 6 °C. The patches of urban heat island are ran-
domly distributed in the entire area (Fig. 5). However, a set of islands are linearly distributed along the
north-south axis of the city, starting from Bawana-Narela in north to Airport area in south. The north-
west parts of Delhi (encompassing Rohini, Nangloi, Mundka, Badli, and Jehangirpuri), Dwarka in
south-west, and Okhla in south-east were found to be prime regions under influence of UHI during
winter month. Winter UCI was observed in agricultural areas of Bhaktawarpur, Auchandi, and Jaffar-
pur Kalan located towards the city peripheries that were under Rabi crop.
March month image represented the spring season. UHII for spring season increased to 12 °C from
7 °C in winters. The areas that experienced maximum UHI during winter continued to experience
maximum UHI during spring season as well. The heat island appeared to be spread out to other parts
of the city as well. Notably in eastern Delhi a 2 °C (approx.) winter UCI was replaced with 2–4 °C UHI
during spring season (Fig. 5). In contrast to winter UHI pattern, when scattered random patches of UHI
were seen across the city, spring exhibited more smooth and continuous UHI surface covering built-up
areas of the city.
UHI intensity reached its maximum (16 °C) during summers. Summer UHI appears in extreme
south-west Delhi, the area that is majorly agricultural land and is left fallow during summers
(Fig. 5). The exposed fallow land with low heat capacity gets heated up easily. This heating up of agri-
cultural fallows is further supported by the high amount of incoming solar radiation during this sea-
son. Summer UHI–UCI maps present a distinct pattern, where urban areas appeared to be cool islands
while agricultural (or rural) areas emerge as heat island sites. This is attributed to open fallow land
which exhibit lower thermal capability. Such results have also been reported by Buyantuyev and
Wu (2010) for October daytime data for Phoenix, Arizona where city behaved as a cool island against
the hot surrounding desert area.
Monsoon exhibited the second highest UHI intensity (13.8 °C). This is despite the fact that monsoon
season receives maximum rains. But spatially, high UHII values are restricted to industrial and
commercial regions across the city (Bawan-Narela in extreme north, Mundka in west, Azadpur and
28 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34

Fig. 5. Distribution of urban heat and cool islands through different seasons (winter, spring, summer, monsoon and post-
monsoon); y-axis represents area in sq. km from 0 to 700, x-axis represents LST anomaly in degrees Celsius from 10 to 16 (at
an interval of 1 °C).
 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34 29

Wazirpur industrial sites extending from north-west to Old Delhi in centre, Narayana-Mayapuri from
centre to Najafgarh in south-west, Okhla-Badarpur in south) and airport area (Fig. 5). The city
otherwise remains cool or neutral in other parts. This is because industrial areas are concrete and
asbestos dominated surfaces, which do not retain moisture for long. During monsoons when most
of city land has abundant moisture the industrial and airport impervious areas are still largely devoid
of moisture and thus such surfaces emerge as UHI areas with high intensities.
Post-monsoon season UHI pattern is similar to that of summer season as UHI dominance is
observed in periphery of the city (Fig. 5). But post-monsoonal UHII is relatively smaller than that of
summer. The city displays low UHI but highest UCI intensities. Cool Island of 6 °C intensity is observed
around the central ridge and along the river. Due to prevalence of fallow lands, UHII is high but when
compared with summer season incoming radiation is comparatively less. This brings UHII values
down to 10.5 °C. Fallow lands drag the mean LST to higher side, but due to less heating of other land
surfaces, UCI tends to be high during post-monsoons.

Fig. 6. (a) Annual mean LST and (b) Annual mean anomaly map. Locations: (1) Narela & Bawana, (2) Samaipur-Badli Industrial
Area, (3) Rohini, (4) Wazirpur Industrial Area, (5) Zakhira & Anand Parbat, (6) Mundka & Nangloi, (7) Mayapuri Industrial Area,
(8) Najafgarh & Dwarka, (9) Airport, (10) Okhla Industrial Area.
30 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34

Fig. 6 (continued)

Thus as city progresses from winters to summers both heat and cool island intensities keep on
increasing. Shift in season from summers to winters via. Post-monsoon, causes heat island intensity
to fall down with an exception of monsoon season. Simultaneously, the cool island also becomes
milder with change in season from winter to summer.

2.3. Annual mean UHI and UCI analysis

An annual mean LST image (Fig. 6a) was generated using seasonal LST layers. An anomaly compu-
tation was performed for the mean LST layer to study the intensity and pattern of annual UHI over
Delhi (Fig. 6b). Based on spatial distribution of anomaly values, ten locations with very high anomalies
were identified as UHI vulnerable areas. Six of these are industrial areas, viz., Narela-Bawana,
Samaipur-Badli, Wazirpur, Zakhira-Anand Parbat, Mayapuri and Okhla. The reason for these areas
behaving as UHI will be explained in later section. The vast expanse of airport is another area that
exhibits higher UHII values. Relatively huge stretch of land, largely open or concrete and lack of
 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34 31

vegetation canopy make airport highly prone to UHI. The airport thus as vast surface exposed to radi-
ation and being concrete in nature, it gets heated up easily and contributes towards development of
UHI. Rest three locations were residential areas of Rohini, Najafgarh-Dwarka area and Mangolpuri and
Nangloi colonies. Rohini and Najafgarh are areas where urban sprawl is still in action with many new
and rapid constructions coming up in the area. Vast stretches of land are in under-construction stage
that is exposed lands, which are result in excessive heating. Nangloi colony is a slum dominated area,
most houses have asbestos roofs. The colony is densely packed with almost nil vegetation cover. Due
to these two factors this area develops a tendency for UHI phenomenon.
Very high annual UHI intensities were observed over Samaipur-Badli industrial area (anom-
aly  7 °C), Nangloi (anomaly  7 °C), Kondli and Kondli-extension (anomaly  6.7 °C) and Airport
(anomaly  6.5 °C). Relatively lower intensities were recorded for Dwarka (anomaly  5.6 °C),
Wazirpur (anomaly  5 °C), Jehangirpuri-Azadpur (anomaly  5 °C), Sadar Bazar and Chandni Chownk
(anomaly  5 °C), Mayapuri (anomaly  4.5 °C) and Rohini (anomaly  4.5 °C). Areas such as
Narela-Bawana (anomaly  4 °C), Zakhira (anomaly  4 °C), Ghazipur (anomaly  3.8 °C), Najafgarh
road industrial area (anomaly  3.5 °C) and Paharganj (anomaly  3 °C) display lowest intensity of
UHI.
Most of the sites identified were found to be in industrial zones which mainly comprise of high
density built-up and are mostly devoid of green cover. Concrete structures are abundant in the indus-
trial environment where they perform a variety of functions. Due to their thermal properties and low
emissivity these structures absorb more radiations and emit less. In addition to this, the exposed
vegetation-devoid lands of industrial set-up lack moisture and thus contribute to the warming effect.
Dominance of asbestos roofs in such areas further increases susceptibility towards UHI. As a cumula-
tive effect of all these factors, heat gets accumulated in the area gradually converting them into heat
islands.
Other locations are either areas with high commercial activities such as Paharganj and Chandni
Chowk or are residential lands with dense built-up that exhibit poor thermal insolations. The cool
islands were seen over the agricultural lands of Jharoda Kalan, Jaffarpur Kalan, Auchandi, and Jhangola
villages and forests of central ridge, Cantonment area and Asola Bhati Wildlife Sanctuary areas dem-
onstrating the fact that vegetated areas tend to be cooler than surrounding built-up lands. As these
have more shade and moisture such land surfaces absorb lesser heat and also emit more due to
evaporation.

3. Conclusion

LST analysis for the city of Delhi established the existence of UHI influence. Areas that are primarily
urban exhibit higher temperature as compared to agricultural rural lands. With establishment of the
fact that Delhi is under influence of UHI and considering the prevalence of heterogeneous and highly
dynamic land use, seasonal patterns of UHI are analyzed. With changing seasons, changes in land use
specifically in agricultural areas and vegetation phenology are observed. These changes further trigger
the alterations in distribution of UHI intensity as well as its spatial distribution.
Anomaly based approach to quantify UHI is proposed in this paper. This is applied to study the sea-
sonal variation in spatial distribution and magnitude of UHI in Delhi. Maximum UHI intensity is found
to vary in order of summer > monsoon > spring > post-monsoon > winter. Apart from variation in
intensity, UHI also varied with respect to distribution in space throughout the city. UHI is dominant
in the city centre during spring and monsoon, while it shifts to south-west part in summers and
post-monsoon harvesting seasons.
Such seasonal distribution needs through study so that appropriate mitigation measures could be
suggested. One of the ways to mitigate such seasonal peripheral pseudo-UHI could be adoption of
better cropping practices so that fallow period could be minimized. In winters, it was predominant
in the major industrial and commercial and dense residential regions. The winter UHI, promoting con-
cept of green roofing or usage of porous concrete for construction could help mitigate the impacts. The
paper thus demonstrated UHI seasonal patterns with respect to space and magnitude in semi-arid
conditions of a tropical developing country. Detailed study of seasonal variation in UHI is important
32 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34

from mitigation viewpoints, as these variations indicate that a measure based on single season will not
provide us an appropriate solution as UHI manifestation gets altered with changing seasons.
To identify the areas that remain under UHI stress throughout the year, annual UHI map is
generated for annual mean anomaly values. Annual anomalies illustrate that most of industrial areas,
some of the residential areas and airport, are under the influence of UHI throughout the year. These
areas thus call for special attention from urban planners with respect to UHI mitigation. The study
has been conducted at city level using medium resolution data, but UHI is a phenomenon that is
localized in nature and thus requires detailed study at different levels such as based on various admin-
istrative boundaries, planning units, or beyond physical boundaries to different land use levels. Scale
dependence of the phenomenon makes it imperative to study it at different scales and using different
resolutions to visualize it at broadest and finest levels. Not only spatial scales need scrutiny but
temporal variations also need to be focused on for better understanding of the phenomenon.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of
India, for providing the funding for this project. We are also thankful to the anonymous reviewers for
sharing their valuable views and comments which has contributed in improving the quality of
manuscript.

References

Anderson, M.C., Allen, R.G., Morse, A., Kustas, W.P., 2012. Use of landsat thermal imagery in monitoring evapotranspiration and
managing water resources. Remote Sens. Environ. 122, 50–65.
Aniello, C., Morgan, K., Busbey, A., Newland, L., 1995. Mapping micro-urban heat islands using Landsat TM and a GIS. Comput.
Geosci. 21, 965–969.
Bagan, H., Yamagata, Y., 2012. Landsat analysis of urban growth: How Tokyo became the world’s largest megacity during the
last 40 years. Remote Sens. Environ. 127, 210–222.
Buyantuyev, A., Wu, J., 2010. Urban heat islands and landscape heterogeneity: linking spatiotemporal variations in surface
temperatures to land-cover and socioeconomic patterns. Landscape Ecol. 25, 17–33.
Cayan, D.R., Douglas, A.V., 1984. Urban influences on surface temperatures in the south-western United States during recent
decades. J. Climate Appl. Meteorol. 23, 1520–15330.
Cermak, J.E., Davenport, A.G., Plate, E.J., Viegas, D.X., 1994. Wind Climate in Cities. <http://books.google.co.in/
books?id=fYcjrJhiucgC>.
Chander, G., Markham, B.L., Helder, D.L., 2009. Summary of current radiometric calibration coefficients for Landsat MSS, TM,
ETM+, and EO-1 ALI sensors. Remote Sens. Environ. 113, 893–903.
Cheval, S., Dumitrescu, A., 2009. The July urban heat island of Bucharest as derived from modis images. Theor. Appl. Climatol. 96,
145–153.
Cui, Y.Y., Foy, B.D., 2012. Seasonal variations of the urban heat island at the surface and the near-surface and reductions due to
urban vegetation in Mexico city. J. Appl. Meteorol. & Climatol. 51, 855–868.
Ferguson, G., Woodbury, A.D., 2007. Urban heat island in the subsurface. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34.
Fujibe, F., 2009. Urban warming in Japanese cities and its relation to climate change monitoring. In: The Seventh International
Conference on Urban Climate, Yokohama, Japan.
Gaffin, S.R., Rosenweig, C., Khanbilvardi, R., Parshall, L., Mahani, S., et al, 2008. Variations in New York city’s urban heat island
strength over time and space. Theor. Appl. Climatol. 94, 1–11.
Gallo, K.P., Owen, T.W., 1999. Satellite-based adjustments for the urban heat island temperature bias. J. Appl. Meteorol. 38, 806–
813.
Gallo, K.P., McNab, A.L., Karl, T.R., Brown, J.F., Hood, J.J., Tarpley, J.D., 1993. The use of NOAA AVHRR data for assessment of the
urban heat island effect. J. Appl. Meteorol. 32, 899–908.
Grimmond, S., 2007. Urbanization and global environmental change: local effects of urban warming. Cities Global Environ.
Change, 83–88.
Harlan, S.L., Ruddell, D.M., 2011. Climate change and health in cities: impacts of heat and air pollution and potential co-benefits
from mitigation and adaptation. Curr. Opin. Environ. Sustainability 3, 126–134.
Hu, L., Brunsell, N.A., 2013. The impact of temporal aggregation of land surface temperature data for surface urban heat island
(SUHI) monitoring. Remote Sens. Environ. 134, 162–174.
Hua, L.J., Ma, Z.G., Guo, W.D., 2008. The impact of urbanization on air temperature across China. Theor. Appl. Climatol. 93, 179–
194.
Huang, G., Zhou, W., Cadenasso, M.L., 2011. Is everyone hot in the city? Spatial pattern of land surface temperatures, land cover
and neighbourhood socioeconomic characteristics in Baltimore, MD. J. Environ. Manage. 92, 1753–1759.
Hung, T., Uchihama, D., Ochi, S., Yasuoka, Y., 2006. Assessment with satellite data of the urban heat island effects in Asian mega
cities. Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf. 8, 34–48.
Imhoff, M.L., Zhang, P., Wolfe, R.E., Bounoua, L., 2010. Remote sensing of the urban heat island effect across biomes in the
continental USA. Remote Sens. Environ. 114, 504–513.
Jauregui, E., 1997. Heat island development in Mexico city. Atmos. Environ. 31, 3821–3831.
 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34 33

Jin, M., Dickinson, R.E., Zhang, D., 2005. The footprint of urban areas on global climate as characterized by MODIS. Am. Meteorol.
Soc., 1551–1565.
Jongtanom, Y., Kositanont, C., Baulert, S., 2011. Temporal variations of urban heat island intensity in three major cities, Thailand.
Mod. Appl. Sci. 5, 105–110.
Kolokotroni, M., Ren, X., Davies, M., Mavrogianni, A., 2012. London’s urban heat island: impact on current and future energy
consumption in office buildings. Energy Build. 47, 302–311.
Keramitsoglou, I., Kiranoudis, C.T., Ceriola, G., Weng, Q., Rajasekar, U., 2011. Identification and analysis of urban surface
temperature patterns in Greater Athens, Greece, using MODIS imagery. Remote Sens. Environ. 115, 3080–3090.
Li, Y., Zhang, H., Kainz, W., 2012. Monitoring patterns of urban heat islands of the fast-growing Shanghai metropolis, China:
using time-series of Landsat TM/ETM+ data. Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf. 19, 127–138.
Liu, W., Ji, C., Zhong, J., Jiang, X., Zheng, Z., 2007. Temporal characteristics of the Beijing urban heat island. Theor. Appl. Climatol.
87, 213–221.
Lo, C.P., Quattrochi, D.A., 2003. Land-use and land-cover change, urban heat island phenomenon, and health implications: a
remote sensing approach. Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens. 69, 1053–1063.
Ma, Y., Zhong, S., Su, Z., Ishikawa, H., Menenti, M., Koike, T., 2006. Determination of regional distributions and seasonal
variations of land surface heat fluxes from Landsat-7 enhanced Thematic Mapper Data over the central Tibetan Plateau area.
J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 111, 1–12 (1984–2012).
Mallick, J., Rahman, A., Singh, C.K., 2013. Modeling urban heat islands in heterogeneous land surface and its correlation with
impervious surface area by using night-time ASTER satellite data in highly urbanizing city, Delhi-India. Adv. Space Res. 52,
639–655.
Mann, M., Sehrawat, S., 2009. A city with a view: The afforestation of the Delhi Ridge, 1883–1913. Mod. Asian Stud. 43, 543–570.
Miller, J.D., Safford, H.D., Crimmins, M., Thode, A.E., 2009. Quantitative evidence for increasing forest fire severity in the Sierra
Nevada and Southern Cascade Mountains, California and Nevada, USA. Ecosystems 12, 16–32.
Mirzaei, P.A., Haghighat, F., 2010. Approaches to study urban heat island – abilities and limitations. Build. Environ. 45.
Nichol, J.E., Fung, W.Y., Lam, K., Wong, M.S., 2009. Urban heat island diagnosis using ASTER satellite images and ‘in situ’ air
temperature. Atmos. Res. 94, 276–284.
Paul, F., 2002. Changes in glacier area in Tyrol, Austria, between 1969 and 1992 derived from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper and
Austrian glacier inventory data. Int. J. Remote Sens. 23, 787–799.
Papanastasiou, D.K., Kittas, C., 2012. Maximum urban heat island intensity in a medium-sized coastal Mediterranean city. Theor.
Appl. Climatol. 107, 407–416.
Qin, Z., Karnieli, A., Berliner, P., 2001. A mono-window algorithm for retrieving land surface temperature from Landsat TM data
and its application to the Israel–Egypt border region. Int. J. Remote Sens. 22, 3719–3746.
Roth, M., Oke, T.R., Emery, W.J., 1989. Satellite derived urban heta islands from three coastal cities and the utilization of such
data in urban climatology. Int. J. Remote Sens. 10, 1699–1720.
Saaroni, H., Ben-Dor, E., Bitan, A., Potchter, O., 2000. Spatial distribution and microscale characteristics of the urban heat island
in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Landscape Urban Plann. 48, 1–18.
Sailor, D.J., Lu, L., 2004. A top–down methodology for developing diurnal and seasonal anthropogenic heating profiles for urban
areas. Atmos. Environ. 38, 2737–2748.
Schwarz, N., Lautenbach, S., Seppelt, R., 2011. Exploring indicators for quantifying surface urban heat islands of European cities
with MODIS land surface temperatures. Remote Sens. Environ. 115, 3175–3186.
Schwarz, N., Schlink, U., Franck, U., Grobmann, K., 2012. Relationship of land surface and air temperatures and its implications
for quantifying urban heat island indicators – an application for the city of Leipzig (Germany). Ecol. Indic. 18, 693–704.
Senanayake, I.P., Welivitiya, W.D.D.P., Nadeeka, P.M., 2013. Remote sensing based analysis of urban heat islands with vegetation
cover in Colombo City, Sri Lanka using Landsat-7 ETM+ data. Urban Clim. 5, 19–35.
Sham, J.F.C., Lo, T.Y.L., Memon, S.A., 2012. Verification and application of continuous surface temperature monitoring technique
for investigation of nocturnal sensible heat release characteristics by building fabrics. Energy Build. 53, 108–116.
Sharma, R., Joshi, P.K., 2012. Monitoring urban landscape dynamics over Delhi (India) using remote sensing (1998–2011) inputs.
J. Ind. Soc. Remote Sens., 1–10.
Sharma, R., Ghosh, A., Joshi, P.K., 2012. Spatio-temporal footprints of urbanisation in Surat, the Diamond City of India (1990–
2009). Environ. Monit. Assess. 185 (4), 3313–3325.
Sobrino, J.A., Munoz, J.C., Paolini, L., 2004. Land surface temperature retrieval from LANDSAT TM 5. Remote Sens. Environ. 90,
434–440.
Song, C., Woodcock, C.E., Seto, K.C., Lenney, M.P., Macomber, S.A., 2001. Classification and Change Detection Using Landsat TM
Data: When and How to Correct Atmospheric Effects? Remote Sens. Environ. 75, 230–244.
Stathopoulou, M., Cartalis, C., 2009. Downscaling AVHRR land surface temperatures for improved surface urban heat island
intensity estimation. Remote Sens. Environ. 113, 2592–2605.
Steeneveld, G.J., Koopmans, S., Heusinkveld, B.G., Hove, L.W., Holtslag, A.A.M., 2011. Quantifying urban heat island effects and
human comfort for cities of variable size and urban morphology in the Netherlands. J. Geophys. Res. 116, 14.
Sun, Q., Tan, J., Xu, Y., 2010. An ERDAS image processing method for retrieving LST and describing urban heat evolution: a case
study in the Pearl River Delta Region in South China. Environ. Earth Sci. 59.
Tan, J., Zheng, Y., Tang, X., Guo, C., Li, L., et al, 2010. The urban heat island and its impact on heat waves and human health in
Shanghai. Int. J. Biometeorol. 54, 75–84.
Tomilson, C.J., Chapman, L., Thomes, J., Baker, C.J., 2011. Including the urban heat island in spatial heat health risk assessment
strategies: a case study for Birmingham, UK. Int. J. Health Geographics 10, 14.
Tomlinson, C.J., Chapman, L., Thornes, J.E., Baker, C.J., 2012. Derivation of Birmingham’s summer surface urban heat island from
MODIS satellite images. Int. J. Climatol. 32, 214–224.
Tran, H., Uchihama, D., Ochi, S., Yasuoka, Y., 2006. Assessment with satellite data of the urban heat island effects in Asian mega
cities. Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf. 8, 34–48.
United Nations. 2012. World Urbanization Prospects: The 2011 Revision. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Population
Division, UN.
34 R. Sharma, P.K. Joshi / Urban Climate 9 (2014) 19–34

Valor, E., Caselles, V., 1996. Mapping land surface emissivity from NDVI: application to European, African, and South American
areas. Remote Sens. Environ. 57, 167–184.
Voogt, J.A., Oke, T.R., 2003. Thermal remote sensing of urban climates. Remote Sens. Environ. 86, 370–384.
Weng, Q., 2003. Fractal analysis of satellite-detected urban heat island effect. Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens. 69, 555–566.
Weng, Q., Rajasekar, U., Hu, X., 2011. Modeling urban heat islands and their relationship with impervious surface and vegetation
abundance by using ASTER images. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens. 49, 4080–4089.
Yuan, F., Bauer, M.E., 2007. Comparison of impervious surface area and normalized difference vegetation index as indicators of
surface urban heat island effects in Landsat imagery. Remote Sens. Environ. 106, 375–386.
Zhang, J., Wang, Y., 2008. Study of the relationships between the spatial extent of surface urban heat islands and urban
characteristic factors based on Landsat ETM+ data. Sensors 8, 7453–7468.
Zhang, J., Wang, Y., Li, Y., 2006. A C++ program for retrieving land surface temperature from the data of Landsat TM/ETM+ band6.
Comput. Geosci. 32, 1796–1805.
Zhang, Y., Odeh, I.O.A., Han, C., 2009. Bi-temporal characterization of land surface temperature in relation to impervious surface
area, NDVI and NDBI, using a sub-pixel image analysis. Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf. 11, 256–264.
Zhang, P., Imhoff, M.L., Wolfe, R.E., Bounoua, L., 2010. Characterizing urban heat islands of global settlements using MODIS and
nighttime lights products. Can. J. Remote Sens. 36, 185–196.