SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Sustain. Cities
Sec. Climate Change and Cities
A Footprint of UHI in India: A Systematic Review of Causative Factors, Impacts and Mitigation Strategies
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India
- 2University of Allahabad, PRAYAGRAJ, India
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Urban heat island (UHI) is the phenomenon where urban areas possess higher temperature than its surrounding rural areas. The present review examines the factors contributing to the UHI effect and the challenge faced by Indian cities in the context of environmental sustainability and health by referring to the literature of more than 40 cities between 2005 and 2023. The present study reviewed already available research which utilizes remote sensing techniques to study the UHI. This study mainly includes satellite data studies; while some fixed station studies, field observations and instrument measurement studies were also incorporated. The current scenario of UHI research in India highlights that the larger cities are studied the most and the smaller but developing cities still needs to be explored for the UHI research. The identified key drivers of UHI are vegetation loss, impervious surface, unplanned urban agglomeration, anthropogenic heat and aggravated energy consumption. Different methods have been studied including different simulation techniques used in UHI research. Furthermore, the present review highlights how India can advance towards creating a more resilient, sustainable, and healthful urban environment through creative urban planning, the integration of green infrastructure, and execution of policies such as Heat Action Plan (HAP) aimed at mitigating UHI impacts. Finally, this study highlights future key directions to examine understudied UHI layers i.e. Atmospheric and canopy layer UHI, smaller or medium sized urban centers and encouraged to study the region-specific factors such as topography, morphology and socio-economic factors in order to facilitate sustainable and resilient urban planning in India.
Keywords: cool roofs, green roofs, heat action plan, mitigation, Urban Heat Island, urban planning
Received: 18 Jun 2025; Accepted: 27 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Priyadarshni and PANDEY. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: PUNEETA PANDEY
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.