{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,9]],"date-time":"2026-04-09T14:18:06Z","timestamp":1775744286916,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,4,22]],"date-time":"2019-04-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1555891200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Spatial Data Mining and Information Sharing of Ministry of Education, Fuzhou University","award":["2016LSDMIS02"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2016LSDMIS02"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["41401370"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41401370"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002920","name":"Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["CUHK 14601515, CUHK 14635916 and CUHK 14605917"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CUHK 14601515, CUHK 14635916 and CUHK 14605917"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002920","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Urbanization has become one of the most important human activities modifying the Earth\u2019s land surfaces; and its impacts on tropical and subtropical cities (e.g., in South\/Southeast Asia) are not fully understood. Colombo; the capital of Sri Lanka; has been urbanized for about 2000 years; due to its strategic position on the east\u2013west sea trade routes. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of urban expansion and its impacts on land surface temperature in Colombo from 1988 to 2016; using a time-series of Landsat images. Urban land cover changes (ULCC) were derived from time-series satellite images with the assistance of machine learning methods. Urban density was selected as a measure of urbanization; derived from both the multi-buffer ring method and a gravity model; which were comparatively adopted to evaluate the impacts of ULCC on the changes in land surface temperature (LST) over the study period. The experimental results indicate that: (1) the urban land cover classification during the study period was conducted with satisfactory accuracy; with more than 80% for the overall accuracy and over 0.73 for the Kappa coefficient; (2) the Colombo Metropolitan Area exhibits a diffusion pattern of urban growth; especially along the west coastal line; from both the multi-buffer ring approach and the gravity model; (3) urban density was identified as having a positive relationship with LST through time; (4) there was a noticeable increase in the mean LST; of 5.24 \u00b0C for water surfaces; 5.92 \u00b0C for vegetation; 8.62 \u00b0C for bare land; and 8.94 \u00b0C for urban areas. The results provide a scientific reference for policy makers and urban planners working towards a healthy and sustainable Colombo Metropolitan Area.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11080957","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,4,22]],"date-time":"2019-04-22T11:02:53Z","timestamp":1555930973000},"page":"957","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":83,"title":["Urbanization and Its Impacts on Land Surface Temperature in Colombo Metropolitan Area, Sri Lanka, from 1988 to 2016"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4982-3775","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"H.P.U.","family":"Fonseka","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T. 999077, Hong Kong"},{"name":"Arthur C Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies, Katubedda, Moratuwa 10400, Sri Lanka"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6135-9442","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hongsheng","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T. 999077, Hong Kong"},{"name":"Shenzhen Research Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518000, China"}]},{"given":"Ying","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0280-3926","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hua","family":"Su","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Spatial Data Mining and Information Sharing of Ministry of Education, National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Satellite Geospatial Information Technology, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, China"}]},{"given":"Hui","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Geography and Environment, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8769-8506","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yinyi","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T. 999077, Hong Kong"},{"name":"Shenzhen Research Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518000, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,4,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Spence, M., Annez, P., and Buckley, R. 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