Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Lahore’s Resilience Against Heat Wave by Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Abstract

This research work aims at finding urban resilience capacity of Lahore (study area) against the heat wave. Natural as well as anthropogenic disasters are threatening the urban systems and the urbanites. In the present scenario of fastest urbanization, the concepts of urban resilience and sustainability are sprouting and flourishing for making the cities more resilient and sustainable against disasters. Lahore, being the 2nd largest city of Pakistan with huge population, faces the disasters of various natures including urban flooding, smog and heat wave. The major function of a city is to provide all what is needed for its people and that is only possible when a city will be resilient enough to cope with the disasters and have capability to meet the social, economic and environmental needs of its people. This research focuses on identification of the major disasters being faced by Lahore and evaluation of its sustainability and resilience capacity against these disasters. Landsat images of the years 2002,2012 and 2022 were acquired from the USGS website. These images were processed and analyzed by using ArcGis to find out the relationship among various indices causing heat wave. In this regard, NDVI, NDBI, LULC, LST and UHI were obtained. The extracted information was later rearranged, over-layered and weighted to trace the zonal resilience of Lahore. The deduced findings reveal tremendous impact of decreasing vegetation cover and expansion in built-up area in creation of heat island and hindering the resilient capacity of Lahore. The eastern parts of the city are the most resilient followed by southern areas while central and western parts are least resilient against heat wave. Change detection analysis shows drastic change, the highest resilient areas of 2002 and 2012 are the least resilient in 2022. This research will further lead to new horizons of research pertinent to urban resilience and will be of great significance for developers and policy makers in making the cities resilient against disasters.