Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Mediterranean Geoscience Reviews, cilt.8, sa.1, ss.55-70, 2026 (Scopus)
The Urban Heat Island effect (UHI) poses increasing challenges for rapidly growing metropolitan regions such as Istanbul, contributing to increased thermal discomfort, energy demand, and public health risks. This study analyzes daytime land surface temperature (LST) and surface urban heat island (SUHI) patterns in Istanbul, Türkiye, over ten years (2015–2024) using Landsat imagery. A large volume of Landsat 7, 8, and 9 imagery was acquired and processed via Google Earth Engine (GEE) using an automated workflow that integrates atmospheric correction, emissivity adjustment, and pixel-level classification to retrieve LST and compute SUHI intensity. Results show that summer LST ranged from 15 °C in high-elevated, forested mountain areas in northwestern Çatalca (2015) to nearly 50 °C over densely built-up surfaces in the rapidly urbanizing district of Sancaktepe (2023), with high temperatures consistently recorded in long-established urban cores such as Zeytinburnu, Şişli, and Bahçelievler. Thermal hotspots expanded in both intensity and extent, particularly into Esenyurt, Pendik, and northern Arnavutköy, which corresponds to urban sprawl and infrastructural growth patterns. In contrast, significantly cooler regions were observed in forested and less developed areas in the north, such as Şile and Çatalca. The spatiotemporal patterns of SUHI showed a parallel trend to LST, with elevated intensity in newly urbanized zones. This study contributes to the field by leveraging GEE for large-scale, long-term thermal analysis. It provides spatially detailed insights and an evidence base to support climate-resilient planning and green infrastructure strategies in Istanbul.