| Summary: | The spatial configuration of the built environment influences the thermal behaviour at the local level and may generate the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon. This impact has been investigated through several physical and climatological approaches. In this respect, the local climate zones (LCZs) scheme is recently adopted to facilitate the spatial study and understanding of UHIs. This research investigates the formation of surface UHIs in the case of the Nile River Islands, Cairo. It adopts the classification scheme of LCZs for selecting and comparing samples and conducting analyses of the distribution of land surface temperature (LST) for the area of interest. The adopted workflow aims at defining the homogenous zones of LCZs by three main steps: (i) the classification of LCZs based on supervised pixel-based classification of geospatial data, using the web-based tool of LCZ Generator, (ii) the detection of UHIs through the estimation of LST, and (iii) spatial statistical tests of Global Moran’s Index and Hotspot analysis for studying the significance of LST distribution within the study area. The adopted workflow successfully assists in estimating the LST and mapping UHI, and it contributes to the understanding of the physical and thermal characteristics of the selected urban areas. The analyses of outputs show reliable results with the recent studies of spatial relations between LCZs and LST.
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