IDENTIFICATION OF THERMALLY CRITICAL ZONES BASED ON INTER SEASONAL VARIATION IN TEMPERATURE- A CASE STUDY OF KOLKATA MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, WEST BENGAL, INDIA

Varying distribution of land surface temperature in an urbanized environment is a globally addressed phenomenon. Usually has been noticed that criticality of surface temperature increases from the periphery to the urban centre. As the centre experiences maximum severity of heat throughout the year, it also represents most critical zone in terms of thermal condition. Those criteria has been experienced in administrative jurisdiction like Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) area under Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) jurisdiction which is located in Kolkata district of west Bengal has been chosen here as the area of the study. In this present study an attempt has been taken to propose a quantitative approach of thermal critical zonation (TCZ) on the basis of seasonal temperature variation. Here the zonation is done by calculating thermal critical value (TCV). From the Landsat 8 thermal digital data of summer and winter seasons for the year 2018, the land surface temperature maps and thermally critical zonation has been prepared and respective databases has been computed to conduct the whole study. Our analysis suggests that TCZ can be identified and analysed by the help of inter-seasonal temperature range. The results of this study can be utilized effectively in future urban development and planning projects as well as a framework for implementing rules and regulations by the KMDA authorities for a sustainable urban development through an environmentally affable approach in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

Key words

Thermal critical values (TCV), Thermally critical zonation (TCZ), Land surface temperature (LST), Landsat 8, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).