Spatial Variability of Land Surface Temperature of a Coal Mining Region Using a Geographically Weighted Regression Model: A Case Study

Coal accounts for over half of India’s energy needs currently. However, it has resulted in significant environmental impacts such as altering land cover and land surface temperatures. This study quantifies the land surface temperature (LST) of Dhanbad City (India)—home to India’s largest coal reserves. It uses the Landsat 8 image data to evaluate urban and rural temperature variations across different land use–land cover (LULC) classes. Using a Geographically Weighted Regression Model (GWR), we examined the spatial heterogeneity of the LST using key environmental indices, such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI), Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), and Normalized Difference Barren Index (NDBI). The seasonal LST variations revealed significant urban–rural area temperature disparities, with rural regions exhibiting stronger correlations with the key indices above. The GWR model accounted for 78.31% of the spatial variability in LST, with unexplained heterogeneity in urban areas linked to anomalies identified in the coal mining area fire map. These findings underscore the necessity of targeted mitigation strategies to reduce high LST values in coal fire-affected regions, with localized spatial measures in mining areas.