Modeling the Spatial Expansion of Urban Heat Islands in Rasht Metropolitan

Today, in many countries of the world, environmental issues are very important for researchers. In this field, the spatial expansion of urban heat islands is one of the most important environmental issues. Urban heat islands are formed due to the growth of human activities and the dominance of artificial environments on the natural environments. The main purpose of this research was spatial analysis and identification of urban heat islands in Rasht metropolitan. In this regard, four main indicators (Density of land use, Green Infrastructure, Transportation, and Urban density) were selected. Environmental studies, Google Earth software, the master plan of Rasht, and the questionnaire method were used to collect information. The pairwise comparison method was used to investigate the relative weight of the indicators. For data analysis, the Arc Map software used spatial analysis tools such as point density, line density, kernel density, interpolation, Euclidean distance, and Zonal Statistic model. Results showed that the transportation index with a coefficient of 0.44 was more important than other indices in the formation of urban heat islands. The index of the land use density with a comparative weight of 0.341 was the second most important index. The indicators of urban density and natural infrastructure were the third and fourth most important indicators. According to the results obtained from the overlaying of the indicators, the center of urban heat islands was identified in Bagharabad, Chelekhane and Bazar neighborhoods. Spatial analysis showed that the spatial expansion of urban heat island is towards the western neighborhoods of Rasht such as Pirsera and Ziabri. According to the results of the research, in 26% of the Rasht area, the possibility of the formation of urban heat islands was high and very high. Also, in 48 percent of the neighborhoods of Rasht city, in other words, 26 out of 55 neighborhoods of the city the intensity of urban heat islands was high and very high. Therefore, managers and city officials must pay more attention to this issue in planning for the future of Rasht City and adopt policies that reduce the negative effects and consequences of this issue.