Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Theoretical and Applied Climatology (2023) 153:367–395 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-023-04477-2 RESEARCH Response of soil moisture and vegetation conditions in seasonal variation of land surface temperature and surface urban heat island intensity in sub‑tropical semi‑arid cities Shahfahad 1  · Ahmed Ali Bindajam 2  · Mohd Waseem Naikoo 1  · Juhi Priyanka Horo 3  · Javed Mallick 4  · Mohd Rihan 1  · Manisha Dabral Malcoti 5  · Swapan Talukdar 1  · Rejaur Rahman 6  · Atiqur Rahman 1 Received: 11 November 2022 / Accepted: 6 May 2023 / Published online: 17 May 2023 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature 2023 Abstract The cities of arid and semi-arid regions have distinctive landscape patterns and large-scale variations in soil moisture and vegetation cover which causes signifcant variations in land surface temperature (LST) and surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) pattern. Therefore, the study aims to analyse the seasonal and spatial variation in LST and SUHII in the eight semi-arid cities of India in response to soil moisture and vegetation conditions. LST was retrieved from the thermal bands of Landsat data and then SUHII was calculated. The global Moran’s I was used to analysis the spatial pattern of SUHII. The result shows that the mean SUHII was higher during spring and summer seasons to a tune of 0.2 to 1.0 °C in comparison to the winter and autumn season. SUHII zones exhibit seasonal variation in coverage, with high and very high zones increasing during spring and summer, while low and very low zones increase during autumn and winter. Furthermore, the highest LST was noticed in outskirt areas of the selected cities. The regression coefcient shows that soil moisture is closely associated with SUHII, while there is a weak association between vegetation condition and SUHII. This indicates that soil moisture has a higher impact on SUHII than vegetation condition in semi-arid environment. Global Moran’s I showed that the SUHII had a clustered distribution pattern across all cities. The outcome of this study may provide useful insight for the urban planners in SUHII mitigation in the selected cities as well as in other semi-arid cities of the world with similar geographical conditions. * Javed Mallick jmallick@kku.edu.sa * Atiqur Rahman arahman2@jmi.ac.in Shahfahad fahadshah921@gmail.com Ahmed Ali Bindajam abindajam@kku.edu.sa Mohd Waseem Naikoo waseemnaik750@gmail.com Juhi Priyanka Horo juhipriyanka_horo@yahoo.com Mohd Rihan rihans046@gmail.com Manisha Dabral Malcoti dabralm11@gmail.com Swapan Talukdar swapantalukdar65@gmail.com Rejaur Rahman rejaur2001@yahoo.com 1 Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110025, India 2 Department of Architecture and Planning, College of Engineering, King Khalid University, Abha 61411, Saudi Arabia 3 Department of Geography, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi, New Delhi 110017, India 4 Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia 5 Department of Architecture and Ekistics, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110025, India 6 Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh