Verificação da Urbanização na Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro Utilizando Dados de Sensoriamento Remoto

This work aims using remote sensing data, i.e., Landsat-5 and Landsat-7 images, to verify the urbanization processes in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro (RMRJ). The analysis is performed based on our previous works developed for Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex (COMPERJ) pilot area where albedo and urban modified index (UI*) have best described the urban changes during its construction. Accordingly, we have adopted these parameters and the land-surface temperature (LST) (used for comparison) to extend the initial analysis, restricted to COMPERJ area, to RMRJ. The images were grouped into 3 distinct decades, 80, 90 and 00, in order to represent the environmental conditions during these periods, allowing at the same time the temporal evolution observation of these parameters. The temporal evolution of LST, albedo and UI* was confirmed by the Students’s t statistical test conducted at the 5% level. Results show that albedo and UI* better identify the urban changes than LST. Albedo shows changes in a large region associated with low differences, which spatially does not seem to match reality. On the other hand, UI * does not show such a large amount of spurious values, but at the same time it shows the same well-defined nuclei indicated by the albedo. Thus, a combination of TSC and albedo, i.e., UI*, may be more efficient in characterizing urban areas. Palavras-chave: urban heat island, COMPERJ, RMRJ, land-surface temperature, albedo, UI.