Investigating the Relationship between Land Use/Land Cover Change and Land Surface Temperature Using Google Earth Engine; Case Study: Melbourne, Australia

The rapid alteration to land cover, combined with climate change, results in the variation of surface temperature (LST). This LST is mainly affected by spatiotemporal changes cover classes, their geospatial characteristics, and spectral indices. Melbourne has been subject previous studies change but often over short time periods without considering trade-offs between use/land (LULC) mean daytimes summer season a more extended period. To fill this gap, research aims investigate role LULC on annual daytime hot summers 2001 2018 Melbourne. achieve study’s aim, maps were generated based cost-effective cloud-based analysis platform Google Earth Engine (GEE). Furthermore, geo-statistical relationship LULC, LST, indices including Normalised Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) Vegetation (NDVI), identified. findings showed that increased 5.1 °C from 2018. minimum maximum values recorded for vegetation built-up area classes Additionally, 5.5 5.9 2018, respectively. both elevation NDVI revealed as most influencing factors classification process. Considering R2 grass (0.48), forest (0.27), shrubs (0.21) had highest values. In addition, urban areas (0.64), bare (0.62), cropland (0.61) types regarding NDBI study highlights why planners policymakers must understand impacts LST. Appropriate policy measures can be proposed control Melbourne’s future development.