RESUMO
Due to urbanization worldwide, gradual increase in construction and use of irregular urban topography affect urban climate negatively, triggering urban heat island (UHI) formations in cities and thereby causing them to become uninhabitable places for human comfort. This study, which covers the province of Diyarbakir in Turkey, aims to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of areas with potential urban heat island (UHI) by using remote sensing methods and satellite/terrain data available between 2001 and 2019. According to the Landsat 7 satellite, an area with a potential of 27.4 km2 in 2001, 20.8 km2 in 2006, 27.4 km2 in 2008, 16.7 km2 in 2010, and 12.2 km2 in 2012 was determined. According to the Landsat 8 satellite, it was measured as 14.49 km2 in 2017 and 15.67 km2 in 2018. According to Landsat 8 satellite data, areas with UHI potential increased by 14.6% over a 3-year period. According to Landsat 7 data, there has been a continuous fluctuation over the years. One of the important results of this study is that between 2001 and 2019, the higher the rate of change according to the surface temperature, the larger the area with the potential of the heat island. At the same time, it has been determined that spatially potential UHIs have a great potential not in the city center, but in the surrounding areas close to the center and in the topographically hollow areas.