A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Environmental Engineering and Management

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2013

Urban heat island which is a result of urbanization affects the urban climate of Hanoi metropolitan. The understanding about this issue along with the socio-economic development of Hanoi is necessary to improve the urban planning. The statistical analysis was conducted to discover the evidence of urban heat island in Hanoi based on the 30 years meteorological record data. The Landsat TM and ETM+ multispectral dataset from 1993 to 2009 were processed to derive the land surface temperature and explore the development of urban heat island in term of spatial distribution. Several methods which involve emissivity computation being taken to derive LST were also discussed. The resultant LST and land cover classification were qualitatively evaluated by visually comparing the relation to hourly meteorological data and spatial patterns to the ground truth sample based on Google Earth Image and field trip conducted in November 2012 and January 2013. The results indicated the existence and magnitude of this phenomenon (1-2°C) and the change of land cover type, especially build-up was the indicator of heat island. The relationship between land cover and land surface temperature were also established using linear regression analysis. The highest contributors to the city warming-up go to the industrial and high residence density areas that located in the inner-city and urbanized areas. The regression model shows that every 1 percent of increase of build-up area would manipulate the land surface temperature increase by 0.03°C while the green area helps to reduce temperature by 0.02°C. The results of this study would contribute to help the urban planners and decision-makers for taking action on various decisions at different level.