Abstract

Ho Chi Minh City is the biggest industrial, commercial center in Viet Nam with population more than 6 millions people. The population growth and socio economic development results in rapid increasing transportation, urban expansion has reached to suburban areas. It effects a change of microclimate in urban areas, most evident that the increasing of urban surface temperature is compare with suburban areas, formed "head island" in the atmospheric boundary layer above urban; it could simultaneously pose serious environmental problems for its inhabitants (e.g., urban waterlogged and thermal pollution). Thermal remote sensing proved its capacity in monitoring temperature field. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of Landsat ETM data for indicating temperature differences in urban areas and compare the relationships between urban surface temperature and land cover types. The urban temperature distribution map and the analyses of thermal land cover relationships can be used as the reference for urban planning and the solution to head island effect reduction.