Mapping local climate zones and its applications at the global scale: A systematic review of the last decade of progress and trend

Abstract

The concept of local climate zone (LCZ) was proposed in 2012 to meet the needs of refinement and standardization of urban climate research. As an important contribution of the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tool (WUDAPT), which is an initiative to collect and share urban data globally to facilitate urban-focused climate researches, LCZ research has shown a booming trend in the past decade. As of the end of October 2023, more than 400 related papers, which involve about 250 cities in the world, have been published. At this juncture (decadal anniversary of the WUDAPT), a review from a global perspective and outlooks of the LCZ framework, from mapping to application and its coordinated development with WUDAPT, are needed to support the popularity and further progress of LCZ and WUDAPT. In this review, statistical and metadata analysis methods were used to summarize and analyze a sample of LCZ-related papers published since 2012, focusing on two aspects: mapping and application. The mapping methods were divided into three categories, namely, remote sensing-based, geographic information system-based, and hybrid methods. The application topics were grouped into two categories, namely, WUDAPT initiative and novel WUDAPT application. Two relevant themes originated from the above summary were further discussed, and then the future was forecasted on the basis of current research limitations. From this review, researchers can benefit from the recent progress in mapping and application of the LCZ system and future research directions, thereby further promoting the development in this field.