Assessment of Spatial Variation of the Surface Urban Heat and Cool Island in Sulaymaniyah City during the Dry Season

Urban landscape modifications due to rapid urbanization, thermal capacity and three-dimensional urban geometry as well as climate change can lead to the difference in energy balance and heating capacity between cities and their surroundings and the occurrence of urban heat and cool islands. This study investigated the spatial variation of the surface urban heat island (SUHI) and surface urban cool island (SUCI) in the Sulaymaniyah urban area during the dry season. It examined the spatial variation of Land Surface Temperature (LST) and the SUHI\SUCI intensity through six satellite images of Landsat OLI-TIRS 09 utilized during the period of 21st June to 22nd September 2022. The Mono-Window Algorithm was used to retrieve LST, and the Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) was used to classify Land Use\ Land Cover Classes. To find out the key drivers of LST patterns, the related indices such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Dry Built-up Index (DBI), Dry Bare Soil Index (DBSI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Normalized Soil Moisture Index (NSMI), Evapotranspiration (ET), Albedo and terrain factors (Elevation, Slope, Aspect and Shaded Relief) were computed.