There are several climate indices that can be used to show the state and the changes in local climate systems but which index is better and can show the effects of long term land-use change on local climate dynamics.
This is an interesting question.
It may be good to differentiate the climatic effects from local (e.g. urbanization) and regional (e.g. farming) land use and land cover changes, however, though they are in most cases exhibiting similar characteristics for certain climatic variables such as temperature and relative moisture.
In view of urbanization, diurnal temperature range (DTR) should be one of the best measures for indicating the long-term change in local climate in mid- to high latitude zones, with it generally significantly being reduced. With regard of large-scale land use and land cover change, including the transformation from forests or grasslands to farm lands, the continentality index, and probably other indicators including DTR, would be useful.
Dear Prof, Ren,
Thank you very much for your helpful and detailed response to my question.
Regards,
Emadodin
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