Application of LCZ to Urban Heat Island Studies

Stewart and Oke introduced the local climate zone (LCZ) scheme that has over the past decade garnered global recognition for being the most meticulous land classification system yet. LCZ illustrates classes and sub-classes that are local in scale, climatic in nature and zonal in representation. The LCZ framework comprehensively analyses the influence of morphological parameters and anthropogenic activities on the urban environment. The immensely disturbed environment is the aftermath of human-induced (mostly irreversible) alterations across micro, local and meso scales. Extensive land use and land cover transformations coupled with mushrooming population are rapidly transforming cityscapes and the climatic regime globally. A growing body of literature has established multifarious impacts of intensifying heat in urban areas. This has led the researchers to invent and hone systems that categorize land, interpret the climatic variabilities and thus combat vulnerabilities. This chapter deliberates upon three key aspects: (1) urban configuration and the magnitude of UHI in high-density cities; (2) various spatial classification frameworks and (3) applicability of LCZ scheme through multiple investigations conducted globally. Congested LCZs experience elevated temperatures at the canopy and surface level during the night whereas the sparsely-built LCZs record much lower temperature both during the day and night.