Urban Heat Island Effects in Global Cities: Balancing Rapid Urbanization, Land Surface Temperature Dynamics, and Sustainable Adaptation Strategies

Dear Colleagues,

Urban Heat Islands significantly influence urban environments worldwide, leading to increased temperatures compared to surrounding rural areas. Rapid urbanization, accompanied by extensive landuse and landcover changes, exacerbates Urban Heat Islands, impacting public health, environmental quality, and urban sustainability. As global cities continue to expand, understanding the dynamics of Land Surface Temperature becomes crucial for urban planners, environmental scientists, and policymakers to develop effective strategies to mitigate negative effects and ensure sustainable urban development. This research area has become increasingly important due to climate change and its amplified impacts in densely populated urban regions.

This Special Issue aims to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to give insights into the complex relationships between rapid urbanization, Land Surface Temperature dynamics, and sustainable adaptation strategies within urban settings. In line with the focus of the journal Land, this Special Issue emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches in urban planning, environmental science, remote sensing, geoinformatics, and policy formulation to support sustainable urban development and climate change adaptation.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:

• Assessment and modelling of Urban Heat Island intensity using remote sensing and GIS techniques.
• Evaluations of land use and land cover change impacts on land surface temperature and urban microclimates.
• Sustainable urban design and planning strategies for mitigating Urban Heat Islands.
• Integration of community participation and policy frameworks in adapting to increased urban temperatures.
• Comparative case studies of Urban Heat Island across different geographic and climatic regions.
• Review papers synthesizing current methodologies and approaches for assessing and mitigating Urban Heat Islands.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Liliia Hebryn Baidy
Prof. Dr. Gareth Rees
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.