143 CHAPTER 7 Development of a Geospatial Model for Automated Retrieval of Land Surface Temperature from Landsat 8 Satellite Imagery Aliihsan Sekertekin 1 I. INTRODUCTION Land Surface Temperature (LST) is an important parameter that governs the interaction between the land and atmosphere. Besides, LST has an impact on regional climates, surface energy balance and energy exchanges [1]. The effects of LST on various topics such as urban climate [2]–[4], fire monitoring [5], evapotranspiration and water resources management [6], surface heat island effect [7] and geothermal exploration [8] have been examined by many researchers. LST can be obtained from meteorological stations that measure the radiance. However, this traditional technique provides point-based measurements that do not represent the whole topography. Thermal remote sensing technology is an effective way to estimate and examine the spatial distribution of LST. Many factors affect accurate LST retrieval from thermal- infrared (TIR) imagery such as atmospheric effects, sensor parameters (spectral resolution and view angle) and surface parameters (surface emissivity and geometry) [9], [10]. Land Surface Emissivity (LSE) and atmospheric parameters, namely atmospheric transmittance, upwelling and downwelling Radiance, and effective mean atmospheric temperature, refer to two major determinants for LST retrieval from TIR data. Thus, many researchers have developed LST retrieval algorithms based on these variations [11]–[16]. Single channel algorithm (SCA) [13], [17], mono window algorithm (MWA) [14], temperature/emissivity separation (TES) method [12] and split window algorithm (SWA) [15], [16], [18] can be counted as the most preferred algorithms to obtain LST from TIR data. Users generally have various problems to retrieve LST from the aforementioned methods due to the complicated and sometimes confusing steps of the algorithms. Furthermore, commonly used Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System 1 Department of Geomatics Engineering, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey. E-mail: asekertekin@cu.edu.tr, aliihsan_sekertekin@hotmail.com