Estimation of surface urban heat island (SUHI) effect over four populated cities of Andhra Pradesh state of India

Abstract

This work reports the probable effect of population ingress in generating urban heat islands over four cities of Andhra Pradesh state of India. We identified twenty-six UHIs and chose four UHIs based on the population data. The period from 1961 to 1990 was selected as the reference period, and 2003 to 2020 was selected as the study period to determine the deviations in mean temperatures. We framed a methodology to filter and select the UHIs to know the effect of SUHI using online resources for data and plots that are free of cost and user-friendly. One out of four UHIs exhibited a stronger deviation in night-time temperatures than in day-time temperatures. We observed that the rise in population equally contributes to the temperature deviations over the long term in the selected areas. We conclude that the population ingress may influence land surface temperatures and induce the SUHI effect.