ABSTRACT
Urban environments exhibit complex thermal characteristics that significantly influence both human thermal comfort, energy consumption, and urban ecosystem health. High-resolution thermal remote sensing provides direct measurements that are used to derive the land surface temperature (LST), offering critical observations for understanding urban thermal dynamics and attributors to their spatiotemporal variations. The surface urban heat island (SUHI) effect represents one of the most prominent urban thermal phenomena detectable through remotely sensed LST. The urban thermal landscape emerges from the interplay of multiple factors, including urban geometry, surface material properties, atmospheric conditions, and regional climate, resulting in distinct spatial variability and unique diurnal and seasonal patterns of SUHIs. With advancing spatial resolution and improved temporal coverage in modern thermal remote sensing systems, high-resolution LST data have become increasingly valuable for assessing urban heat exposure risks, environmental justice disparities in heat distribution, and heat-related health risk assessments through integration with complementary datasets and modeling approaches. This capability positions thermal remote sensing as an essential tool for urban climate studies and sustainable city planning.
