Abstract Body

Urban heat island (UHI) effects have received serious attention globally due to their detrimental impacts on human and environmental health. These effects are noticeable in cities where natural land cover have been replaced with impervious surfaces, buildings and urban infrastructure, thereby increasing the micro-climate changes due to temperature increase. This paper seeks to analyse the UHI effect in Ibeju Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria with the view to recommending green infrastructure to mitigate its impact in the light of rapid urbanization rates. The study assessed and analyzed the UHI factors of the case study using periodical air temperature data and multi-temporal Landsat imageries to generate NDVI maps for the years 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020. These were used to analyze the land surface temperature (LST) and land use/land cover of the study area over the period considered. Built-up areas have significantly increased from 9.4% in 1990 to 32.53% in 2020 thereby bringing about a significant loss of green land cover. Variations and increased temperature from the thermal reflection of each land use and land cover in Ibeju Lekki, Lagos are also noticeable. This affirms that continuous conversion of natural land cover to other uses contributes significantly to the overall surface temperature in Ibeju Lekki. This study, therefore, recommends the provision of green infrastructures such as urban tree canopy, parks, open spaces and ecological landscaping to mitigate the surface temperature of Ibeju Lekki, thus alleviating health problems and hazards that often accompany temperature increases.