Consideration of NDVI and Surface Temperature Calculation from Satellite Imagery in Urban Areas: A Case Study for Gumi, Korea

Abstract

NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) plays an important role in surface land cover classification and LST (Land Surface Temperature Extraction). Its characteristics do not full carry the information of the surface cover typically in urban areas even though it is widely used in analyses in urban areas as well as in vegetation. However, abnormal NDVI values are frequently found in urban areas. We, therefore, examined NDVI values on whether NDVI is appropriate for LST and whether there are considerations in NDVI analysis typically in urban areas because NDVI is strongly related to the surface emissivity calculation. For the study, we observed the influence of the surface settings (i.e., geometric shape and color) on NDVI values in urban area and transition features between three land cover types, vegetation, urban materials, and water. Interestingly, there were many abnormal NDVI values systematically derived by the surface settings and they might influence on NDVI and eventually LST. Also, there were distinguishable transitions based on the mixture of three surface materials. A transition scenario was described that there are three transition types of mixture (urban materialvegetation, urban material-water, and vegetation-water) based on the relationship of NDVI and LST even though they are widely distributed.