The Impact of Urban Planning on the Urban Heat Island Effect

Dear Colleagues, 

The convergence of climate change and rapid urbanization has significantly exacerbated the urban heat island (UHI) effect, making it a critical environmental challenge for cities worldwide. As urban areas continue to expand, the conversion of natural landscapes into built environments—coupled with increased anthropogenic heat emissions and altered surface energy balances—has led to substantial temperature differentials between urban and rural areas. This phenomenon not only affects human health and thermal comfort but also heightens energy consumption, air pollution, and urban vulnerability to climate change. Understanding and mitigating the UHI effect through urban planning has become increasingly essential for fostering sustainable and resilient cities.

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) in order to provide insights into the multifaceted relationships between urban planning strategies and the UHI effect, encompassing physical mechanisms, impact assessment, and approaches to mitigation. This Special Issue aims to bridge the gap between urban climatology and planning practice by examining how various planning interventions can effectively mitigate UHI effects while promoting sustainable urban development. 

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

• Interactions between climate change, urbanization, and UHI formation mechanisms;
• The impact of urban morphology on urban microclimate;
• Assessment methods and monitoring techniques for urban thermal environments;
• The design and implementation of green infrastructure for UHI mitigation;
• Building energy efficiency and architectural design strategies in response to UHI effects;
• Assessment methods and tools for evaluating urban planning impacts on UHI;
• Case studies of successful UHI mitigation through urban planning interventions. 

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

Prof. Dr. Josep Roca
Dr. Blanca Arellano
Dr. Adriana Inés Olivares-González
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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.

• urban heat island
• urban planning
• urban climate
• green infrastructure
• climate adaptation
• thermal comfort
• building energy efficiency
• legislation, public policies, and projects aimed at the management of urban heat islands
• urban heat island, urban planning, and inequalities
• public health and social adaptation to the risk of the urban heat island effect
• climate justice