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Urban Heat Island Mitigation

Urban Heat Island Mitigation is a research topic within Environmental Engineering. Science Explorer counts 34k research works in it since 1950. 24.3% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the phenomenon of urban heat islands, the impact of urbanization and land-use change on climate, and various strategies to mitigate the heat island effect in urban environments. It covers topics such as green roofs, remote sensing of land surface temperature, urban climate modeling, and the role of vegetation in reducing urban heat. The papers also discuss the implications of urban heat islands on energy consumption, thermal comfort, and climate change.

  • Urban Heat Island
  • Green Roofs
  • Land Surface Temperature
  • Remote Sensing
  • Urban Climate
  • Thermal Comfort
  • Energy Consumption
  • Vegetation
  • Cooling Strategies
  • Climate Change
Research works
34k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
8.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
24.3%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+88%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Urban Heat Island Mitigation research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (3.5k and 898 works in 2022–2025).

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China 3.5k works
  2. 2 United States 898 works
  3. 3 India 641 works
  4. 4 Italy 418 works
  5. 5 Brazil 324 works
  6. 6 Türkiye 323 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 312 works
  8. 8 Spain 285 works
  9. 9 France 257 works
  10. 10 Germany 241 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 48.3%United States: 12.6%India: 9.0%Italy: 5.8%6 others listed: 24.3%48%largest
China3,459 · 48.3%United States898 · 12.6%India641 · 9.0%Italy418 · 5.8%6 others listed1,741 · 24.3%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Urban Heat Island Mitigation research?

By volume in 2022–2025, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Urban Heat Island Mitigation research, followed by Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Harbin Institute of Technology.

Who are the leading researchers in Urban Heat Island Mitigation?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Urban Heat Island Mitigation include Hung Chak Ho, Josep Peñuelas and Shanhui Fan.

  1. 1 Hung Chak Ho Hong Kong 5.1k citations
  2. 2 Josep Peñuelas Spain 4.1k citations
  3. 3 Shanhui Fan United States 3.6k citations
  4. 4 Dennis Baldocchi United States 3.5k citations
  5. 5 P. D. Jones United Kingdom 3.4k citations
  6. 6 Liangpei Zhang China 3.2k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

Where is Urban Heat Island Mitigation research done?

The largest centres of Urban Heat Island Mitigation research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Shanghai (China) and Guangzhou (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Lin’an Shi and Perugia.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 782 works
  2. 2 Nanjing China 267 works
  3. 3 Shanghai China 232 works
  4. 4 Guangzhou China 209 works
  5. 5 Wuhan China 184 works
  6. 6 Xi'an China 157 works
  7. 7 Hong Kong China 147 works
  8. 8 Tehran Iran 111 works
  9. 9 Seoul South Korea 108 works
  10. 10 Chengdu China 97 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Lin’an ShiCN · 23.8 works14×
  2. PerugiaIT · 23.7 works8.9×
← less than its size predictsmore →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Urban Heat Island Mitigation than the world average.

See Urban Heat Island Mitigation on the map

Where is the best place to study Urban Heat Island Mitigation?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Guangzhou University and Zhejiang A & F University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%60%mean 36.06%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Hong Kong Polytechnic University: 62, 48.6%Guangzhou University: 37, 37.0%Zhejiang A & F University: 24, 33.5%The University of Kitakyushu: 19, 30.5%National University of Singapore: 45, 43.5%City University of Hong Kong: 36, 40.8%University of Perugia: 22, 24.5%Beijing Forestry University: 30, 36.7%Nanjing Forestry University: 30, 40.1%Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology: 46, 25.4%Hong Kong Polytechni…Guangzhou UniversityZhejiang A & F Unive…The University of Ki…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityHong Kong 69.548.6%6.6×62 +61.7%
2 Guangzhou UniversityChina 69.237.0%9.4×37 +223.6%
3 Zhejiang A & F UniversityChina 65.433.5%14.1×24 +235.9%
4 The University of KitakyushuJapan 62.930.5%52.0×19 +147.9%
5 National University of SingaporeSingapore 62.543.5%4.4×45 +146.8%
6 City University of Hong KongHong Kong 61.540.8%5.8×36 +80.0%
7 University of PerugiaItaly 60.624.5%9.6×22 +193.4%
8 Beijing Forestry UniversityChina 60.336.7%9.8×30 +82.3%
9 Nanjing Forestry UniversityChina 59.740.1%6.2×30 +259.5%
10 Xi'an University of Architecture and TechnologyChina 58.825.4%14.1×46 +84.9%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Urban Heat Island Mitigation research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 88% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Urban Heat Island Mitigation.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.