A Regional Comparative Study of the Urban Heat Island Effect in Indian Cities

Certificate: View Certificate

Published Paper PDF: Download PDF

Confirmation Letter: View

Narender Panghal

Assistant Professor

Department of Geography

Dr. S.N. Nautiyal Govt. PG College,

Karnaprayag, Chamoli,Pin-246444

Abstract— Urban heat islands have emerged as a significant environmental consequence of accelerated urbanization, land-cover transformation, and increasing anthropogenic heat emissions in Indian cities.
This study proposes a regional comparative assessment of urban thermal behavior across Indian cities representing contrasting climatic, geographical, and urban-development settings. The central research gap arises from the limited comparability of existing city-specific investigations because of differences in spatial boundaries, observation periods, reference zones, satellite products, and definitions of surface urban heat island intensity. To address this limitation, the study develops a harmonized analytical framework integrating multi-temporal land-surface temperature, vegetation, built-up density, surface moisture, land-cover characteristics, and regional climatic conditions. A particular emphasis is placed on differentiating daytime thermal anomalies from persistent nighttime heat retention and examining their seasonal variability. The proposed framework further investigates whether similar degrees of built-up expansion produce different thermal responses in arid, semi-arid, humid, coastal, and composite climatic environments.
Keywords— Urban heat island, land surface temperature, urbanization, remote sensing, regional climate, machine learning

References

1. Siddiqui, A., Kushwaha, G., Nikam, B. R., Srivastav, S. K., Shelar, A., & Kumar, P. (2021). Analysing the day/night seasonal and annual changes and trends in land surface temperature and surface urban heat island intensity (SUHII) for Indian cities. Sustainable Cities and Society, 75, 103374. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.103374
2. Nayak, S., Mandal, M., Mahto, S. S., & Nair, M. (2023). Spatial characteristics and temporal trend of urban heat island effect over major cities in India using long-term space-based MODIS land surface temperature observations (2000–2023). Applied Sciences, 13(24), 13323. https://doi.org/10.3390/app132413323
3. Srikanth, K., & Swain, D. (2022). Urbanization and land surface temperature changes over Hyderabad, a semi-arid mega city in India. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, 28, 100858. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsase.2022.100858
4. Jain, M., Siva Prasad Reddy, C., Jha, C. S., & Raghubanshi, A. S. (2023). Two decades of nighttime surface urban heat island intensity analysis over nine major populated cities of India and implications for heat stress. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 5, 1084573. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsc.2023.1084573
5. Mandal, N. S., & Chanda, K. (2025). Investigation of urban heat islands and modeling of land surface temperature over selected Indian cities using MODIS products. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 156, Article 258. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-025-05480-5
6. Islam, S., Dahiya, M., & Gupta, A. (2024). Urban heat island effect in India: A review of current status, impact and mitigation strategies. Discover Cities, 1, Article 36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44327-024-00033-3
7. Sethi, S. S., Vinoj, V., & Swain, D. (2024). Urbanization and regional climate change-linked warming of Indian cities. Nature Cities, 1, 402–405. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-024-00074-0
8. Boyaj, A., Mohapatra, M., & Vinoj, V. (2024). Impact of increasing urbanization on heatwaves in Indian cities. International Journal of Climatology, 44(11), 4089–4114. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.8570
9. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2022). Cities, settlements and key infrastructure. In H.-O. Pörtner et al. (Eds.), Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (Chapter 6). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325844.008
10. S. Geological Survey. (2021). Landsat Collection 2 (Fact Sheet 2021–3002). U.S. Department of the Interior. https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20213002
11. S. Geological Survey. (n.d.). Landsat Collection 2 surface temperature. https://www.usgs.gov/landsat-missions/landsat-collection-2-surface-temperature
12. Wan, Z. (2013). Collection-6 MODIS land surface temperature products users’ guide. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/118/MOD11_User_Guide_V6.pdf
13. Sun, S., Xu, X., Lao, Z., Liu, W., Li, Z., García, E. H., He, L., & Zhu, J. (2022). Evaluating the impact of urban green space and landscape design parameters on thermal comfort in hot summer by numerical simulation. Building and Environment, 209, 108656. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108656
14. Li, H., Zhao, Y., Wang, X., & Shi, H. (2022). Efficient cooling of cities at the global scale using urban green space to mitigate urban heat island effects in different climatic regions. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 74, 127635. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127635
15. Estoque, R. C., Ooba, M., Seposo, X. T., Togawa, T., Hijioka, Y., Takahashi, K., & Nakamura, S. (2020). Heat health risk assessment in Philippine cities using remotely sensed data and social–ecological indicators. Nature Communications, 11, 1581. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15218-8