JOURNAL OF DEGRADED AND MINING LANDS MANAGEMENT Volume 9, Number 2 (January 2022):3329-3339, doi:10.15243/jdmlm.2022.092.3329 ISSN: 2339-076X (p); 2502-2458 (e), www.jdmlm.ub.ac.id Open Access 3329 Research Article Do natural landscapes contribute to reducing Land Surface Temperature (LST)? A case study from Muthurajawela wetland, Sri Lanka Harsha Dias Dahanayake 1* , Deepthi Wickramasinghe 1 , D.D.G.L Dahanayaka 2 1 Department of Zoology and Environment Sciences, P.O Box 1490, University of Colombo, Colombo 00300, Sri Lanka 2 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, The Open University of Sri Lanka, Nawala, Nugegoda 10250, Sri Lanka * corresponding author: harsha.dahanayake@gmail.com Abstract Article history: Received 19 October 2021 Accepted 4 December 2021 Published 1 January 2022 Microclimate regulation is one of the most significant ecosystem services provided by wetlands. The present study attempted to investigate the cooling effect provided by Muthurajawela, a coastal Ramsar wetland using Remote Sensing and GIS. The variation of Land Surface Temperatures (LST) over different Land Use Land Cover (LULC) categories of natural (water bodies, marsh, thick vegetation, grassland) and anthropogenic (built- up areas, coconut cultivations and bare lands) areas was investigated in 2015 and 2020. Parameters including Satellite Brightness Temperature, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, Proportion of Vegetation and Land Surface Emissivity were calculated along eight transects starting from the center of the water body and extending up to 5 km from the boundary of the wetland. The results revealed that LST over areas under natural land cover (2015 - mean 25.04 o C; 2020 - mean 23.36 o C) were significantly lower than that of areas under anthropogenic influence (2015 - mean 26.52 o C; 2020 - mean 26.22 o C). The lowest increase of LST was over the water body and the highest was over the built-up areas indicating the buffering capacity of wetlands. As air temperatures are highly linked to LST, our findings suggest that wetlands contribute to lower atmospheric temperature and offer cooling effects during dry months. As wetlands could contribute to decreasing atmospheric temperature, at least in a local scale, it is important to conserve these ecosystems as a possible adaptation option to reduce climate change driven heating effects. Keywords: climate regulation LST LULC Muthurajawela wetland To cite this article: Dahanayake, H.D., Wickramasinghe, D. and Dahanayaka, D.D.G.L. 2022. Do natural landscapes contribute to reducing Land Surface Temperature (LST)? A case study from Muthurajawela wetland, Sri Lanka. Journal of Degraded and Mining Lands Management 9(2):3329-3339, doi:10.15243/jdmlm.2022.092.3329. Introduction Land is one of the most valuable natural resources which provides many basic needs of humans, including habitats. On the other hand, natural lands, together with living and non-living components which are interacting with each other, act as ecosystems to offer a wide array of benefits, the Ecosystem Services (ES). The ES appear in many different ways and can be classified into provisioning, regulating and maintenance, cultural and supporting services which help the human communities and the environment (Gern et al., 1994; Haines-Young and Potschin, 2013; Biggs et al., 2016). Studies on the impacts of human alterations on regulating services of ecosystems are rare. For instance, the focus on temperature regulation provided by natural habitats has been poorly documented. In the context of climate change and rising atmospheric temperatures, investigations on temperature regulations by nature present meaningful insights, especially in order to mitigate impacts (Clarkson et al., 2013; Mclnnes and Everard, 2017). For instance, the ES related temperature regulation and cooling are vital in energy conservation and urban