Urban-rural gradient analysis of land surface temperature and land cover in Surakarta City and its surrounding areas using Landsat 8 Imagery

Urbanisation in Surakarta City, Indonesia is heavily influenced by development and the interaction between the city and surrounding areas This research aims a) to analyse land cover and land surface temperature (LST) and b) to conduct urban-rural gradient analysis of LST and land cover in Surakarta City and its surrounding areas using Landsat 8 image. Land cover was mapped via supervised Support Vector Machine classification (overall accuracy 90.3%), and LST was retrieved from the thermal band with emissivity correction. Concentric 1-km ring buffers were used to profile LST and land cover. The study findings indicate that urban areas, predominantly characterized by built-up surfaces, experience significantly elevated temperatures compared to rural regions with extensive vegetation cover. The gradient shows peak LST at 0–1 km from the Surakarta city centre, a sharp decline to ~7 km, a more gradual decrease to ~13 km, and a secondary local maximum near the Sukoharjo central business district, reflecting the thermal influence of impervious materials and the cooling capacity of vegetation and water body These results underscore the need to conserve and expand urban vegetation and water bodies and to integrate thermal considerations into spatial planning. By identifying spatially explicit LST gradients and heat-intensive urban zones, this study provides evidence to support urban climate adaptation strategies.