Influence of the Land Surface Temperature and Urban Heat Island Effect on PM<sub>2.5</sub> in Faisalabad during the Summer of 2023

The relationship between Land Surface Temperature (LST), Urban Heat Island Intensity (UHII) and PM2.5 air pollution in Faisalabad is being explored in the summer (June, July and August, JJA) of 2023. Kriging interpolation, buffer zones and regression models were applied using the combined data from MODIS, CAMS reanalysis and GIS approaches to look at heat and pollution dynamics. LST values during the day exceeded 42˚C and UHII was as high as 1.95˚C in the middle and industrial parts of the city. At night, the air’s PM2.5 levels increased above 275 µg/m3 which occurred because of conditions caused by monsoon weather and inversions. LST and UHII were linked with a moderate degree of correlation (r ≈ 0.53), though their effect on PM2.5 and the consistency of this relationship showed that other factors, such as human activities and weather are involved. Even though it focuses only during summer, the study gives practical information about areas hit by both thermal and pollution stress. The integrated geospatial method can be applied to urban environmental planning in other cities in South Asia.