Assessment of Changes in Land Use/Land Cover and Land Surface Temperatures and Their Impact on Surface Urban Heat Island Phenomena in the Kathmandu Valley (1988–2018)

More than half of the world’s populations now live in rapidly expanding urban and its surrounding areas. The consequences for Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) dynamics and Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) phenomena are poorly understood for many new cities. We explore this issue and their inter-relationship in the Kathmandu Valley, an area of roughly 694 km2, at decadal intervals using April (summer) Landsat images of 1988, 1998, 2008, and 2018. LULC assessment was made using the Support Vector Machine algorithm. In the Kathmandu Valley, most land is either natural vegetation or agricultural land but in the study period there was a rapid expansion of impervious surfaces in urban areas. Impervious surfaces (IL) grew by 113.44 km2 (16.34% of total area), natural vegetation (VL) by 6.07 km2 (0.87% of total area), resulting in the loss of 118.29 km2 area from agricultural land (17.03% of total area) during 1988–2018. At the same time, the average land surface temperature (LST) increased by nearly 5–7 °C in the city and nearly 3–5 °C at the city boundary. For different LULC classes, the highest mean LST increase during 1988–2018 was 7.11 °C for IL with the lowest being 3.18 °C for VL although there were some fluctuations during this time period. While open land only occupies a small proportion of the landscape, it usually had higher mean LST than all other LULC classes. There was a negative relationship both between LST and Normal Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and LST and Normal Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), respectively, and a positive relationship between LST and Normal Difference Built-up Index (NDBI). The result of an urban–rural gradient analysis showed there was sharp decrease of mean LST from the city center outwards to about 15 kms because the NDVI also sharply increased, especially in 2008 and 2018, which clearly shows a surface urban heat island effect. Further from the city center, around 20–25 kms, mean LST increased due to increased agriculture activity. The population of Kathmandu Valley was 2.88 million in 2016 and if the growth trend continues then it is predicted to reach 3.85 million by 2035. Consequently, to avoid the critical effects of increasing SUHI in Kathmandu it is essential to improve urban planning including the implementation of green city technologies

Assessing Local Climate Change by Spatiotemporal Seasonal LST and Six Land Indices, and Their Interrelationships with SUHI and Hot–Spot Dynamics: A Case Study of Prayagraj City, India (1987–2018)

LST has been fluctuating more quickly, resulting in the degradation of the climate and human life on a local–global scale. The main aim of this study is to examine SUHI formation and hotspot identification over Prayagraj city of India using seasonal Landsat imageries of 1987–2018. The interrelationship between six land indices (NDBI, EBBI, NDMI, NDVI, NDWI, and SAVI) and LST (using a mono-window algorithm) was investigated by analyzing correlation coefficients and directional profiling. NDVI dynamics showed that the forested area observed lower LST by 2.25–4.8 °C than the rest of the city landscape. NDBI dynamics showed that the built-up area kept higher LST by 1.8–3.9 °C than the rest of the city landscape (except sand/bare soils). SUHI was intensified in the city center to rural/suburban sites by 0.398–4.016 °C in summer and 0.45–2.24 °C in winter. Getis–Ord Gi* statistics indicated a remarkable loss of areal coverage of very cold, cold, and cool classes in summer and winter. MODIS night-time LST data showed strong SUHI formation at night in summer and winter. This study is expected to assist in unfolding the composition of the landscape for mitigating thermal anomalies and restoring environmental viability

Harmonic Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Pattern of Thunderstorms in Iran (1961–2010)

The current study aimed at investigating cycles and the spatial autocorrelation pattern of anomalies of thunderstorms in Iran during different periods from 1961 to 2010. In this analysis, 50-year periods (1961–2010) of thunderstorm codes have been collected from 283 synoptic stations of Meteorological Organization of Iran. The study period has been divided into five different decades (1961–1970, 1971–1980, 1981–1990, 1991–2000, and 2001–2010). Spectral analysis and Moran’s I were used to analyze cycles and the spatial autocorrelation pattern, respectively. Furthermore, in order to conduct the calculations, programming facilities of MATLAB have been explored. Finally, Surfer and GIS were employed to come up with the graphical depiction of the maps. The results showed that the maximum of positive anomalies mainly occurred in the northwestern and western parts of Iran due to their special topography, during all the five studied periods. On the other hand, the minimum of negative anomalies took place in central regions of the country because of lack of appropriate conditions (e.g., enough humidity). Moran’s I spatial analysis further confirmed these findings as Moran’s I depicts the positive and negative spatial autocorrelation patterns in line with negative and positive anomalies, respectively. However, in recent decades, this pattern has experienced a declining trend, especially in southern areas of Iran. The results of harmonic analysis indicated that mainly short-term and midterm cycles dominated Iran’s thunderstorms

Islamic pricing benchmarking

The Islamic finance and banking industry has developed tremendously in recent years. The viability of this industry as an alternative method of investment can no longer be denied. As the current global economic and financial crisis laid bare the systemic problems of conventional finance, the Islamic financial system has been offered as a solution by its proponents. However, Islamic finance has been using conventional finance benchmarks, such as KLIBOR, COFI, LIBOR, etc. to determine its own cost of funds, and hence its return on financial investments. This is so because Islamic finance, if not part of the existing conventional finance, has always served as a financial intermediary for surplus and deficit units. Islamic banking, as the dominant institution in the Islamic finance industry, has gone beyond the function of a financial intermediary, for it also serves as a wakel, custodian, partner, entrepreneur, and guarantor. Nonetheless, Islamic finance has yet to come up with an alternative Islamic Pricing Benchmark (IPB) to determine its cost of capital. The need for having such an IPB for Islamic finance cannot be overemphasized; that would make it more comprehensive and independent from the conventional benchmarks that rely on interest rates, the very thing that Islamic finance abhors. Therefore, this project aims to develop an Islamic pricing benchmark model for the Islamic banking industry, more specifically for Malaysia,given its prominence in the Islamic finance industry. The project has reviewed the Shariah perspective on an Islamic pricing benchmark and has also examined the conventional pricing benchmark being used by banks. The paper further discusses the theoretical formulation of an Islamic benchmark. Thereafter, using sectoral industry and macroeconomic data, it tests the viability of the benchmark using simulation

On the relationship between the 500 hPa height fluctuations and the atmosphere thickness over Iran and the Middle East

Publisher's version (útgefin grein)This paper focuses on the relationship between the 500 hPa height fluctuations and the associative atmosphere thickness (AT) over Iran and the Middle East between 1961 and 2013. For this purpose, atmospheric Geopotential Height (HGT) data of the 1000 and the 500 hPa levels were obtained from the NCEP/NCAR database covering the domain of longitudes 25°E to 75°E and latitudes 15°N to 45°N. The correlation coefficient was used to investigate the relationship. The results showed that the daily fluctuations at the 500 hPa height and the AT over the Middle East were low. However, the degree of instability of the AT and the 500 hPa height was higher in the fall season, due to the study region being located in the transition region of different air masses. The lowest instability of the 500 hPa height and the AT was observed in summer due to the dominance of the subtropical dynamical high pressure which was observed in the summer season and in low latitudes of the Middle East. Nevertheless, the greatest effects of HGT on the AT were observed in the middle latitudes. This situation was due to the cold weather which attacked from the high latitudes toward the mid-latitudes, as well as the convection of hot air from the equator to the high latitudes, causing a sharp temperature difference in the middle latitudes and strongly affecting the AT. So, the fluctuations of the 500 hPa reached their maximum in the midle latitudes. In general, there was a significant, direct relationship between oscillations of the 500 hPa height and the AT.This work was supported by Vedurfelagid, Rannis and Rannsoknastofa i vedurfraedi. Iman Rousta is deeply grateful to his supervisor (Haraldur Olafsson, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Department of Physics, University of Iceland, Institute for Atmospheric Sciences and Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO)), for his great support, kind guidance and encouragement.Peer Reviewe

Advancements in Urban Environmental Studies : Application of Geospatial Technology and Artificial Intelligence in Urban Studies

Advancements in Urban Environmental Studie