Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems Detection of Fossil Fuel Air Pollution Impact in Socially Fragile Areas

One of the important effects of global warming is the use of fossil fuels. Disadvantaged individuals may be affected by fossil fuel use more than others. In this study, the Kepez district of Antalya province, where the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) is high, was selected as the study area. Five-year (2019–2023) NO2, SO2, and CO concentrations were extracted from the Sentinel-5P TROPOMI satellite with open-source code. These values were combined and compared with Land Use Land Cover (LULC) land classes obtained from the Sentinel-2 satellite. The same process was performed for Land Surface Temperature (LST) obtained from MODIS Terra and Aqua satellites, and interpretation was made according to the LST-LULC map and surface temperature. The integrated SVI was calculated with population, age, education, and gender data from the Turkish Statistical Institute and NO2, SO2, and CO concentrations from the Sentinel-5P TROPOMI satellite. It was mapped on a neighborhood basis with zonal statistics. Accordingly, 20.6% of the neighborhoods in Kepez were categorized as very high risk, and 16.2% were categorized as high risk. Integrated SVI with the determination made by evaluating only air pollution gave different neighborhood results. This revealed the importance of using the SVI in disaster risk assessments. This study has the potential to shed light on the social vulnerability-supported disaster risk information system that is likely to be created in the following years.