An assessment of the seasonally dependent biophysical mechanism and dynamic land use change: A research effort from emerging urban agglomeration of West Bengal

The behavior of the biophysical components needs to be closely observed while taking seasonal perspectives into account. This study focuses on seasonal analysis of biophysical components and dynamics of land use changes. This study examines the spatiotemporal seasonal variation among land surface temperature (LST), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and normalized difference water index (NDWI), with a focus on the two main sub-tropical climatic seasons summer and winter. We use correlation and regression analysis to assess the season-wise relationship between LST and biophysical indices with the help of grouped marginal plots. The comparison analyses of the biophysical components and land use change for a longer period from 1991 to 2021 with their matrix was undertaken in five urban agglomerations (UA) like Asansol, Siliguri, Kolkata, English Bazar and Kharagpur. The maximum likelihood classification technique was used to categorize multi-temporal Landsat images for each of the five growing UA in West Bengal. The most intriguing finding is that in all UAs, from 1991 to 2021, built-up area increased to become the predominant land. Thus, the vegetation and agricultural land are in danger in every location of West Bengal, whether it is plain or hilly, because of the land's gradual conversion to concrete or built-up areas over time. Additionally, the result shows that in summer and winter seasons, LST was observed growth due to the rapid urban built-up area expansion. It is also found that LST and NDVI have a close negative relationship, but LST and NDWI do not have any perfect relationship. Therefore, to lessen the warming effect of urban microclimates, policymakers should be concerned about future urban expansion that is both horizontal and vertical. An appropriate strategy for environmentally friendly construction, green buildings, and cool roof technologies should be developed.