Master Thesis Presentation: Analysis of Urban Heat Development in Dresden, Germany using Landsat Data from the Past Decade

On Tuesday, May 28, Ina Schulz will defend her master thesis ” Analysis of urban heat development in Dresden, Germany using Landsat data from the past decade” at 12:00 in seminar room 3, John-Skilton-Str. 4a.
From the abstract: As the number of urban residents is projected to increase in the next decades, the well-being of a growing population is dependent on the temperatures within the world’s urban areas. The urban climate is dominated by the difference in structure of materials compared to the natural environment. The result is an increased temperature in the urban fabric compared to the rural surroundings, called the urban heat island (UHI). Due to the lack of in-situ measurements of air temperature, particularly in urban areas, this phenomenon is often studied using spatially consistent remote sensing measurements of land surface temperature (LST) from satellites such as Landsat 8. The difference in LST between rural and urban areas is called the surface urban heat island (SUHI). Understanding the SUHI itself, the intraurban differences of temperature patterns within urban areas, as well as the development of their dimensions through time are important factors for urban planning and evidence-based decision-making for sustainable and future-proof cities. In this thesis, the SUHI and the intraurban differences in heat of the urban area of Dresden, Germany were studied using satellite-based LST data acquired by Landsat 8 and 9 from 2013 to 2022. This data is aggregated into five-, three-, and two-year time-steps to overcome data gaps. The SUHI and its development through time is detected via the difference in LST in urban and rural areas . Intraurban differences are studied using spatial association: Moran’s I and G-Statistics on a global level, and on a local level Gi* hot and cold spot analysis in combination with Mann-Kendall monotonic trend test is used. Gi*-statistics are also applied to areas of LULC changes to understand their impact on the temperature of their environment. The results show an increase in SUHI intensity in Dresden during the past decade. However, it is dependent on the area with which the urban area is compared, and at which level the LST data is aggregated over time. Hot spots within the urban area in neighbourhoods of high imperviousness while cold spots area associated with areas of vegetation and water, as previously found by other authors. The analysis of LST and LULC changes does not yield easily classifiable results. The effect of drastic LULC changes is detectable using this methodology. Changes in dense urban fabric and slight changes in LULC do not show easily interpretable results.
1st supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hannes Taubenböck 2nd supervisor: Dr. Tobias Leichtle, DLR

read more news:

EAGLE Daria did her internship in Bergen

EAGLE Daria did her internship in Bergen

Our EAGLE student Daria recently wrapped up an internship at the University of Bergen in the Remote Sensing research group. With the support of her supervisor, Dr. Benjamin Abreu Robson, she got to work on the Jostedalsbreen glacier using drone and satellite data. Her...

EAGLE alumni Henrik Fisser presenting UiT research

EAGLE alumni Henrik Fisser presenting UiT research

Our EAGLE alumni Henrik Fisser recently visited us after a research stay in the United States. He is now pursuing his PhD at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, specifically in the Earth Observation Department. UiT is renowned for its cutting-edge research in Earth...

Orfeo Toolbox covered in our courses

Orfeo Toolbox covered in our courses

As part of our international EAGLE MSc courses, we include comprehensive training on the powerful Orfeo Toolbox (OTB) software. OTB is an open-source library for processing remote sensing imagery, offering advanced algorithms for tasks such as image segmentation,...

Internship network fair

Internship network fair

Today, we provided our international Eagle MSc students with access to the professional network of our EORC to assist them in finding suitable internships or MSc thesis topics. Several individuals offered their networks, including Hannes Taubenboeck for georisk and...

GRASS software for Earth Observation

GRASS software for Earth Observation

In our international EAGLE MSc program, we go beyond the limitations of a single programming language or software environment. Our goal is to empower students to leverage a wide range of scientific tools effectively. They gain insight into the strengths and...