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Land
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The Impact of Urban Planning on the Urban Heat Island...
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The Impact of Urban Planning on the Urban Heat Island Effect

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land–Climate Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 November 2026 | Viewed by 4026

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Josep Roca

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for Land Policy and Valuation, ETSAB Barcelona School of Architecture, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: urban planning; urban climate; metropolitan studies
Dr. Blanca Arellano

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for Land Policy and Valuation, ETSAB Barcelona School of Architecture, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: urban planning; urban climate; urban biodiversity
Dr. Adriana Inés Olivares-González

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Research and Studies of Cities, University Center for Art, Architecture and Design, University of Guadalajara, Jalisco 44100, Mexico
Interests: urban and regional planning; urban mobility

Special Issue Information

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.

Keywords

  • 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

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

29 pages, 383 KB  
Article
Urban Heat Islands and Urban Planning Law in Spain: Towards Quantifiable and Enforceable Climate Standards
by María Jesús Romero Aloy and Ángel Trinidad Tornel
Land 2026, 15(2), 205; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15020205 - 23 Jan 2026
Viewed by 726
Abstract
Urban heat islands are among the most intense and unequal climate impacts in Mediterranean cities, with direct effects on health, thermal comfort, and habitability. This reality calls for the incorporation of binding and verifiable climate criteria into spatial planning and urban planning law. [...] Read more.
Urban heat islands are among the most intense and unequal climate impacts in Mediterranean cities, with direct effects on health, thermal comfort, and habitability. This reality calls for the incorporation of binding and verifiable climate criteria into spatial planning and urban planning law. This article examines the extent to which the Spanish legal framework—at national, regional, and municipal levels—incorporates measurable standards to mitigate urban heat islands and how it might evolve towards operational climate-responsive urbanism. A legal–analytical and comparative methodology is applied, based on multilevel normative content analysis and a comparison of four autonomous communities, four Spanish cities, and four international reference cases with consolidated metrics. The results show that, despite progress in recognising adaptation, territorial asymmetries persist, enforceable parameters remain scarce, and there is a prevailing reliance on strategic or voluntary instruments. In response to these gaps, the study proposes a coherent set of urban climate standards (urban vegetation, functional soil permeability, roof albedo/cool roofs, green roofs and façades, plot-scale performance indices, urban ventilation, and thermal diagnostics) and a multilevel integration model aimed at guiding legislative reforms and strengthening cities’ adaptive capacity and thermal equity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of Urban Planning on the Urban Heat Island Effect)
17 pages, 5286 KB  
Article
Enhanced Urban Heat Island Modeling with Machine Learning and Regression Kriging in a Topographically Diverse Medium-Sized City
by Iulian-Horia Holobaca, Mircea Alexe, Kinga Temerdek-Ivan and Cosmina-Daniela Ursu
Land 2026, 15(1), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/land15010049 - 26 Dec 2025
Viewed by 1264
Abstract
Urban heat islands (UHIs) represent a major environmental challenge, particularly in cities with complex topography and local air dynamics where spatial variability of the surface temperature is difficult to model. This study presents an enhanced UHI modeling framework that integrates Random Forest regression [...] Read more.
Urban heat islands (UHIs) represent a major environmental challenge, particularly in cities with complex topography and local air dynamics where spatial variability of the surface temperature is difficult to model. This study presents an enhanced UHI modeling framework that integrates Random Forest regression with Regression Kriging (RF–RK) in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Using a network of 36 air temperature sensors and spatial predictors such as urban environment and location parameters, we evaluated the performance of RF–RK against traditional Multiple Linear Regression (MLR). Results show that RF–RK achieved substantially higher accuracy (R2 = 0.844, RMSE = 0.241 °C) compared to MLR (R2 = 0.653, RMSE = 0.359 °C). Spatial patterns revealed that a notable thermal gradient can be seen between the western and eastern parts of the city and the extension of the heat island core eastward. The combined approach effectively captured both the non-linear relationships of predictors and the spatial autocorrelation of residuals, outperforming single-method models. These findings highlight the potential of hybrid machine learning–geostatistical frameworks for urban climate research and provide insights for urban planning and heat mitigation strategies in topographically diverse cities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of Urban Planning on the Urban Heat Island Effect)
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27 pages, 66167 KB  
Article
Investigating the Influence of Urban Morphology on Seasonal Thermal Environment Based on Urban Functional Zones
by Meiling Zeng, Chunxia Liu, Yuechen Li, Bo He, Rongxiang Wang, Zihua Qian, Fang Wang, Qiao Huang, Peng Li, Bingrong Leng and Yunjing Huang
Land 2025, 14(11), 2117; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14112117 - 24 Oct 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1177
Abstract
With the rapid advancement of urbanization, urban heat environment issues have become increasingly severe, presenting significant challenges to sustainable urban development. Although previous research has demonstrated the substantial impact of urban morphology on land surface temperature (LST), there is still a lack of [...] Read more.
With the rapid advancement of urbanization, urban heat environment issues have become increasingly severe, presenting significant challenges to sustainable urban development. Although previous research has demonstrated the substantial impact of urban morphology on land surface temperature (LST), there is still a lack of comprehensive research on the non-stationary effects of urban morphology on seasonal LST at the block scale. Therefore, this study establishes a comprehensive research framework, utilizing urban functional zones in the core area of Chongqing as the primary research unit, to investigate the seasonal fluctuations in the spatial distribution of LST across various functional zones. Combining Random Forest (RF) with multiscale geographically weighted regression methods (MGWR), the study systematically analyzes the numerical and spatial distribution characteristics of how urban morphology factors influence LST from global and local perspectives. The results indicate that (1) the LST in central Chongqing exhibits marked seasonal variation and a distinct “mountain-water pattern,” with industrial zones consistently hotter and public service areas cooler; (2) biophysical surface parameters and building morphological indicators make a high relative contribution to LST changes across seasons, particularly in public service and commercial areas; (3) building density (BD) and biophysical surface parameters primarily exert local impacts on LST changes, while floor area ratio (FAR) and building height range (RBH) have a global effect. These findings provide new insights into the driving mechanisms of urban heat environments and offer scientific evidence for regulating and mitigating urban heat environment issues across different seasons and urban types. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of Urban Planning on the Urban Heat Island Effect)
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