An assessment of satellite remotely-sensed land cover parameters in quantitatively describing the climatic effect of urbanization

The regional-scale climatic impact of urbanization is examined using two land cover parameters, fractional vegetation cover ( Fr) and surface moisture availability (M0). The parameters are hypothesized to decrease as surface radiant temperature (T0 ) increases, forced by vegetation removal and the introduction of non-transpiring, reduced evaporating urban surfaces. Fr and M0 were derived from vegetation index and T0 data computed from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), and then correlated to a percentage of urban land cover obtained from a supervised classication of Landsat TM imagery. Data from 1985 through 1994 for an area near State College, PA, USA, was utilized.