Urbanisation Effect on the Occurrence of Urban Heat Island over Kano Metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect is a phenomenon of higher atmospheric and surface temperatures occurring in urban areas than in surrounding rural areas happening majorly as a result of urbanisation and industrialisation. The effect of urbanisation on the occurrence of UHI in Kano metropolis was investigated. Landsat images of the study area for the years of 1986, 1998, 2006 and 2016 sourced from the archives of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) were utilised in this study. Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) maps for the years of 1986, 1996, 2006 and 2016 were estimated using Model Maker in Earth Resource Development Assessment System (ERDAS) Imaging 14 software. The urban city centre exhibit higher surface temperatures compared to its sub-urban counterparts thus, indicating the presence of the Surface UHI over Kano Metropolis. Urbanisation accounted for 80.5% increment in the LST of Kano Metropolis, thus indicating a very strong positive relationship between urbanisation and UHI. Conclusively, urbanisation is identified as the major factor that leads to the occurrence of surface UHI in Kano Metropolis. Recommendations include afforestation programmes, adoption of green and cool roofing technologies, proper spacing between houses, and accommodation of green areas and open spaces and continuous monitoring of weather events.