Assessing the effect of Urbanisation on temperature change in Arua District.
Abstract
Arua municipality’s population grew fast which led to emergence of unplanned urban
settlements and urban sprawl. The associated effect with this is higher temperatures due to the
elevated prevalence of heat-absorbing and emitting surfaces and additional heat production. This
study investigated the effects of LC changes on the LSTs for Arua municipality. Using Landsat
imagery, the study first detected the LC and LC changes using the K-means unsupervised
classification method and derived the LSTs for the years 2010, 2015, and 2020. The urban built
up area in Arua municipality increased by 20.5% between 2010 and 2020. During this period, the
average LSTs for the LC classes increased as well, with bare soil and built-up area having the
highest LST in the respective order. The study also showed a positive correlation between the
increasing area in Urban built up areas and the LSTs. The study therefore concluded with some
recommendations that sustainable LC and land use policies be implemented and that for accurate
results, ground measurements for the LSTs be taken within the municipality.