Analysis of urban heat island characteristics and mitigation strategies for eight arid and semi-arid gulf region cities

Remote sensing for urban heat and cool islands evaluation in semi-arid areas

Cities are experiencing rapid population growth and consequently extensive urbanization. Land-use/land-cover change is one of the important elements worldwide, which significantly affect the environment. This study aims to describe the emergence of urban heat and cool islands as a result of changes in land-use/land-cover. Land surface temperature over a 32-year period in Isfahan city, Iran was ...

Trend analysis and detection of precipitation fluctuations in arid and semi-arid regions

The most important impacts of climate change relate to temperature and precipitation. Precipitation is particularly important, because changes in precipitation patterns may lead to floods or droughts in different areas. Also, precipitation is a major factor in agriculture and in recent years interest has increased in learning about precipitation variability for periods of months to annual and s...

Seasonal Variations of the Surface Urban Heat Island in a Semi-Arid City

The process of the surface urban heat island (SUHI) varies with latitude, climate, topography and meteorological conditions. This study investigated the seasonal variability of SUHI in the Tehran metropolitan area, Iran, with respect to selected surface biophysical variables. Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Land Surface Temperature (LST) was retrieved as nighttime LS...

Soils of Arid and Semi-arid Areas

00554 - 9 - Arid and Semi - Arid Geomorphology

The world’s arid lands are some of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth, and their paucity of vegetation often makes it possible to see landforms and structures with great clarity (Figure 1.1). In addition, they have many characteristics both in terms of landforms and geomorphological processes that render them different from other major environments (see, for example, Laity, 2008; Parsons an...