The Land Surface Temperature (LST) obtained by remote sensing data is an essential indicator for analyzing the Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI). A factor contributing to its occurrence is the reflections of the different materials in urban and rural areas, which significantly affect the energy balance near the surface. Therefore, recent studies have increasingly used the Local Climate Zones (LCZs) classification system to discriminate those urban areas. Therefore, our study aims to perform a systematic review using the PRISMA method of LCZ classification applied to understand the LST and the SUHI phenomenon. At first, 10,403 related articles were found in the scientific literature which, after passing through filtering stages, resulted in 51 that were further analyzed. Our results showed that these articles were very recent, beginning in 2016, and present an increasing trend. Even though all articles reviewed somehow try to understand the Urban Heat Island phenomenon, in more than half of them, the SUHI calculation method was not mentioned. China was the country with the most studies. Images from Landsat and TERRA/AQUA sensors appeared in 82% of the studies. The method that appears the most to LCZ definitions is from the World Urban Database. Finally, we conclude that LCZ mapping methodologies were accurate enough for SUHI studies considering the current climatic changes. Therefore, this systematic review can help new studies on SUHI identification through LCZ in different world areas using remote sensing data to estimate the LST.

The lack of a solid methodology defining urban and non-urban areas has hindered accurately estimating the Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI). This study addresses this issue by using the official national urban areas limit together with a surrounding areas classification to define three different reference classes: the urban adjacent (Ua), the future urban adjacent (FUa), and the peri-urban (PUa), consequently providing a more accurate SUHI estimation on the nine northeastern Brazilian capitals. The land surface temperature was obtained in this study using the Sentinel-3 satellite data for 2019 and 2020. Subsequently, the maximum and average SUHI and the complementary indexes, specifically the Urban Thermal Field Variation Index (UTFVI) and the Thermal Discomfort Index (TDI), were calculated. The UTFVI expresses how harmful the eco-environmental spaces are, with a very strong SUHI for three capitals. In addition, the TDI, with values between 24.6–28.8 °C, expresses the population’s thermal comfort, with six capitals showing a very hot TDI. These findings highlight the need for strategies to mitigate the effects of the SUHI and ensure the population’s thermal comfort. Therefore, this study provides a better SUHI understanding and comparison for the Brazilian northeastern region, which has diverse areas, populations, and demographic variations.

The Land Surface Temperature (LST) is an essential indicator for analyzing the Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI). A factor contributing to its occurrence is the reflections of the different materials in urban and rural areas, which significantly affect the energy balance near the surface. Therefore, recent studies have increasingly used the Local Climate Zones (LCZ) classification system to discriminate those urban areas. Therefore, our study aims to do a systematic review using the PRISMA method of LCZ classification applied to understand the LST and the SUHI phenomenon. At first, it was found in the scientific literature 10,403 articles which, after passing through filtering stages, resulted in 51 that were further analyzed. Our results showed that these articles were very recent, beginning in 2016. However, presenting an increasing trend. China was the country with more studies. Landsat and TERRA/AQUA sensors appeared in 82% of the studies. The method that appears the most to LCZ definitions is from the World Urban Database. Finally, considering the current climatic changes, this systematic review can help new studies on SUHI identification through LCZ in different world areas using remote sensing data to estimate the LST.

The Surface Urban Heat Island (UHI) is caused by the difference in temperature between the urban and its surrounding areas. However, in the scientific literature, there is no solid methodology defining urban and non-urban areas, which is essential to estimate the SUHI with greater accuracy. This study uses the official national urban areas limit, to obtain the SUHI more accurately on the nine northeastern Brazilian capitals. The land surface temperature was obtained using the Sentinel 3 satellite data for the years 2019 and 2020. Afterward, the maximum and average SUHI, and the complementary indexes were calculated, such as the Urban Thermal Field Variation Index (UTFVI) and the Thermal Discomfort Index (TDI) for the urban areas and their surrounding areas. The Maximum and Average SUHI, obtained values between 1.85 and 8.25 and -4.92 and 2.59 degree difference, respectively, proving the SUHI existence in the study areas. The UTFVI, with values between 0.010 and 0.040, expresses how bad the eco-environmental spaces of urban are. The TDI, with values between 24.61 and 28.89 ºC, expresses the population’s thermal comfort. Therefore, this study provides a better understanding of the surface UHI pioneeringly for the Brazilian Northeast Region.