On the relationship between the sky view factor and the land surface temperature derived by Landsat-8 images in Bari, Italy

This study investigates the impact of landscape composition and urban morphology on land surface temperature (LST) in the city of Bari, Italy. For this purpose, correlation between sky view factor (SVF) and LST was done assigning weights to the output results and moreover expressing the latter according to the four main surface classes of the Corine land cover (CLC) classification method. To do this, several daytime Landsat 8 and night-time Landsat 7 ETM+ images acquired during different months of the year were used to retrieve LST by using the radiative transfer equation. The results show a positive relationship between LST and SVF, and this trend is emphasized particularly in the more dense urban areas (i.e. for values of SVF close to 0.6, temperature decreases by about 4 K in winter and by more than 7 K in summer). Moreover, the results show that in Bari the relationship between LST and SVF is influenced by seasonal effects resulting in two different behaviours depending on night- and daytime.