Dear Colleagues,

The number of inhabitants in urban areas has been increasing dramatically in recent decades due to the socioeconomic prosperity footprint of urban agglomeration when compared to rural areas. Urban agglomeration in this context refers to the spatial concentration of socioeconomic activities in urban areas that has led to an increase in impervious surface density at the expense of green spaces. One of the resulting significant adverse impacts from this development has been the urban heat island (UHI). The highlighted point is that the effects of the UHI have been accelerating at an alarming rate and approaching levels of irreversibility. Thus, in the past few decades, research on the UHI has become prominent in various fields.

The UHI effect is a phenomenon whereby cities are becoming warmer than their surrounding areas. In another aspect, it is defined as the temperature difference between an urban area and its surroundings, and it could be the result of changes in land cover and increasing anthropogenic heat sources. There are several negative impacts of UHI, such as decreasing air quality, increased energy consumption, weakening of living environments, increasing heat stress, as well as compromised human health and comfort. Making a bottleneck for urbanization is impossible, and the elimination of the UHI effect is not feasible. Thus, it is essential to understand the spatial and temporal variation of the UHI to develop and implement effective mitigation and adaptation measures in the urban area for urban sustainability.

In this Special Issue, we focus on scientific research contents that line up to the UHI mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. We will contribute to this Special Issue through research papers, case studies, conceptual or analytic reviews, and policy-relevant articles that will help to achieve urban sustainability.

Contributions include the following:

• Air temperature and land surface temperature in UHI Studies
• Urbanization and its impacts on urban heat island
• Geospatial analysis for urban heat island phenomena
• Availability of GIS and remote sensing for UHI studies
• Prediction of urban heat island for future urban sustainability
• Thermal comfort and public health
• Urban heat island mitigation and adaptation for urban sustainability

Dr. Manjula Ranagalage
Dr. DMSLB Dissanayake
Dr. Matamyo Simwanda
Prof. Dr. Yuji Murayama
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.