ABSTRACT
The urban heat island (UHI) is a growing concept negatively impacting the quality of our spaces. Heat islands are man-made temporary occurrences that can be solved. The main cause of the UHI is the obstruction of turbulent transfers in the atmosphere due to anthropogenic activities. This chapter investigates the current geospatial heat island effect within the Badulla Municipal Council, Sri Lanka. The analysis is mainly based on remote sensing temperature value-generating techniques and onsite temperature value calculation. NDVI, brightness, land-surface emissivity and land-surface temperature are important variables. The temperature values derived in satellite images (Landsat 8 images derived in 2016 and 2019) are validated by comparison with onsite manual data, enabling the geospatial pattern of the temperature values in three different years to be identified. The results show that the temperature is increasing with trends towards specific development activities. It was found that surface material, density of the physical elements and formation of the physical elements are major factors affecting creation of UHIs within Badulla.
