Assessment of surface energy fluxes relation with land cover parameters in four distinct Indian cities using remote sensing data

The types of land cover and their biophysical properties are directly related to surface energy fluxes, which can change the urban thermal climate. The current study intends to investigate relationship between surface heat fluxes and land cover factors in four cities located at various climate zones in India, i.e., Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bikaner, and Varanasi. The ground heat flux (G), latent heat flux (LE), and sensible heat flux (H) were estimated using two source energy balance (TSEB) algorithm combining both satellite and meteorological data. G showed higher values for water and urban surfaces in four cities. LE showed lower value, and H showed higher values for urban surfaces in the cities except Bikaner. The apparent thermal inertia (ATI), vegetation fraction (fveg), and impervious surface fraction (ISF) were obtained for the four cities. G and LE showed positive relation with ATI and fveg, respectively and negative relation with land surface temperature (LST) in four cities whereas relation of H with ISF varied for different cities. The relation of H with ISF showed positive relation in Bangalore and Varanasi (R2 = 0.94 and 0.99), non-linear relation in Ahmedabad (R2 = 0.38), and negative relation in Bikaner (R2 = 0.96). This variation was observed due to the variation in LST values in urban areas in different cities. The H values are sensitive to LST which is sensitive to land cover types. Thus, the present study revealed that H is more sensitive to land surface parameter in urban region as compared to G and LE.