Impact of highway construction on land surface energy balance and local climate derived from LANDSAT satellite data

Highlights: • Land surface energy balance calculated using satellite images and ground measures • Highway construction affects local climate up to a 90 m distance from a highway axis • In highway surroundings an increase of surface temperature could reach up to 7 °C • A decrease in the amount of evaporated water could reach as much as 44 m³ for each km Extensive construction of highways has a major impact on the landscape and its structure. They can also influence local climate and heat fluxes in the surrounding area. After the removal of vegetation due to highway construction, the amount of solar radiation energy used for plant evapotranspiration (latent heat flux) decreases, bringing about an increase in landscape surface temperature, changing the local climate and increasing surface run-off. In this study, we evaluated the impact of the D8 highway construction (Central Bohemia, Czech Republic) on the distribution of solar radiation energy into the various heat fluxes (latent, sensible and ground heat flux) and related surface functional parameters (surface temperature and surface wetness). The aim was to describe the severity of the impact and the distance from the actual highway in which it can be observed. LANDSAT multispectral satellite images and field meteorological measurements were used to calculate surface functional parameters and heat balance before and during the highway construction. Construction of a four-lane highway can influence the heat balance of the landscape surface as far as 90 m in the perpendicular direction from the highway axis, i.e. up to 75 m perpendicular from its edge. During a summer day, the decrease in evapotranspired water can reach up to 43.7 m³ per highway kilometre. This means a reduced cooling effect, expressed as the decrease in latent heat flux, by an average of 29.7 MWh per day per highway kilometre and its surroundings. The loss of the cooling ability of the land surface by evaporation can lead to a rise in surface temperature by as much as 7 °C. Thus, the results indicate the impact of extensive line constructions on the local climate.