ASSESSMENT OF SEASONAL VARIABILITY IN LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE UNDER VARIOUS LANDUSE LANDCOVER IN MAIDUGURI CITY, BORNO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

A major environmental threat identified worldwide is urbanization. transforming natural landscapes into impervious surfaces, thereby increasing temperature. Several studies on land surface temperature (LST) exist, however, there is a dearth of literature on the influence of seasonal urban Land Use Land Cover (LULC) change on urban thermal characteristics. This study assessed the seasonal variability between LST on various land use land cover in Maiduguri City, Borno State, Nigeria using Landsat images. Three distinct seasons in the region (Dry Season, Dry Hot Season, and Rainy Season) were used. The LST was retrieved using a single-channel algorithm technique. The results show that the LST of the study area is noticeably affected by surface composition and the local climate at the time under consideration. LULC classes have mean LST for Built-up area, bare land, Vegetation and Water bodies as 30.58°C, 31.67°C, 30.01°C and 26.84°C respectively for dry season, 38.85°C, 39.75°C, 38.29°C and 36.91°C for Dry Hot Season and 28.6°C, 27.82°C, 26.86°C and 26.17°C for Rainy season. Results in this study revealed that UHIs exist in the three seasons, but with more intensity in the Dry Hot Season, where there is a drastic reduction in vegetal cover from 27.51 km² in the rainy season to 12.52 km² in the Dry Hot season. It is established that LULCs LST varied with seasons. Built-up areas and Bare land had the most thermal influence during the three seasons. While all the LULCs show high LST in the dry hot season, they equally show low LST in the rainy season. The findings provide a better understanding of seasonal changes in thermal distribution based on LULC, recommending integrating green spaces and water bodies into urban designs to mitigate UHI effects making it valuable for sustainable urban planning and climate change mitigation.