APPRAISAL OF URBANIZATION AND ITS IMPACTS ON THE ALBEDO AND CLIMATE CHANGE OF THE PUNJAB-PAKISTAN: A SPATIO-TEMPORAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The research is aimed at evaluating the process of urbanization and it’s spatio-
temporal impacts on albedo and the changing climate of the Punjab. Climate change in urban areas has

become a public focal point, as urban development in our present-day environment is one of the most
critical aspects of human activities. The shift in the reflective properties of the surface is one of the
particular climatic consequences of urbanization which most researchers have overlooked (Albedo).
Changes in urbanized land surface properties resulted in a global, regional, and local changes in
biochemical cycles and environment. This analysis aims to identify the urban land use of the 1990-
2018 study area (decadal) and evaluate Albedo and Climatic Variables' trends over the selected region.
This study will provide a complete code of classification in Google Earth Engine for researchers. In
Google Earth Engine, the classification technique was utilized to detect urban areas and barren land
cover types by applying coding over four images of 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2018 of Punjab Province.
The Albedo maps were created in the same way for the years 2000 and 2018. Climatic maps were
created from 1990 to 2018 by applying the Inverse Distance Weighted method in a GIS system. There
has been an apparent increase in the urban area of Punjab Province from 1990 to 2018. The urban area
has increased from 1183.5342 km2 to 8396.4618 km2 during the study period. Results from climatic
maps showed hotspots in the areas that have undergone urbanization. Overall, the accuracy of the
classification images was 81-88 percent, which was foremost to achieve the objectives of the research.