Thermal terrain modeling of spatial objects, a tool for environmental and climatic change assessment.

The aim of the current research effort is to include biophysical multi-temporal data and more specifically land surface temperature (LST) in the terrain modeling process that traditionally was based only on digital elevation data processing. The terrain partition framework (spatial objects) is defined by the borderlines of prefecture authorities of Greece. Each object is represented by a set of attributes derived from the digital elevation data, and objects are organized into clusters on the basis of their terrain dependent representation. Finally, the terrain is segmented to regions on the basis of the multi-temporal LST data, each region presenting a different thermal signature. The thermal regions are used in the spatial objects parametric representation and a new index is devised (LST climatic index) expressing the biophysical suitability of spatial objects at moderate resolution scale.