Quantitative Analysis of Urban Design Strategies for Heat Island Mitigation

Despite increasing investments in urban heat island (UHI) mitigation, quantitative evaluations of their thermal impact remain limited. This thesis addresses that gap by analyzing how specific urban design strategies influence land surface temperatures (LST), using satellite-derived data. A standardized geospatial workflow was applied across case studies, using two cloud-free summer satellite images with comparable air temperatures (pre- and post-intervention). Change detection and spatial analysis techniques were used to quantify localized LST differences and identify statistically significant cooling effects. This work demonstrates a replicable GIS-based approach for cities to evaluate the thermal impact of their design interventions, and highlights which strategies may offer the most measurable reductions in urban heat.