Remote Sensing to Analyse Urban Heating Island. A Case Study from Catania (Sicily)

The Urban Heat Islands (UHI) phenomenon consists in the increase of temperature in urban or metropolitan areas compared to neighbouring rural areas. In fact, buildings, roads and the areas with high density building have a great ability to absorb solar radiation, this causes very high consumption of energy and consequently an increase in pollution which can be harmful to human health. In this work, a procedure has been developed that allows us to determine and analyze the heat islands within the metropolitan city of Catania in Sicily. The analysis of the UHI was carried out using Sentinel-2, MODIS and Landsat 8 satellite images, within the GIS environment. The study showed a strong correlation between uncontrolled urbanization of the city and the increase in the surface and atmospheric temperatures.