Urban greenery is a strategy to improve the thermal environment in urban areas affected by heat islands and global warming. These phenomena can harm the citizens’ quality of life. Researchers have investigated the thermal benefits of urban vegetation, but only a few have explored its complexities across diverse urban scales. Understanding these variations is critical for precise analysis, customized solutions, efficient resource allocation, and enhancing urban living quality while promoting sustainability and climate resilience. This paper reviews 250 scientific articles about the relationship between greenspace and the urban thermal environment published between 2010 and 2023 through urban scales. It summarizes the parameters and findings of greenery’s contribution to cooling the urban environment. The data reveal that most studies concentrated on the block scale, public open spaces, neighborhoods, parks, grouped vegetation, mixed arrangements, high vegetation, spatial parameters, and the use of air temperature data to report their findings. The cooling-effect evidence shows that the block scale has an average mitigation range of 0.7–2.7 °C, the neighborhood scale of 1.1–2.9 °C, and the city scale of 0.5–2.2 °C. Furthermore, it is critical to define reliable research methods and perform thorough software validation to assess model performance and establish guidelines for urban-landscape design accurately.

En los últimos años se ha investigado la urbanización y distribución del uso de suelo y su impacto en el microclima, debido a la estructura urbana, los materiales empleados y la falta de vegetación. El presente estudio tiene por objetivo analizar los efectos de la morfología de los cañones urbanos (relación aspecto, orientación y vegetación), y el impacto sobre el confort térmico. Se evaluaron cuatro cañones urbanos y los resultados indican que la orientación y la configuración espacial de cada cañón influye en cada uno de los parámetros climáticos asociados al índice PET (Phisiologycal Equivalent Temperature). La información obtenida permitirá establecer acciones desde la planificación urbana y territorial para generar soluciones asociadas al consumo de energía y mejorar la salud de los habitantes evitando el estrés térmico y los golpes de calor.

Fragmented urban growth in Latin American intermediate cities has increasingly displaced low-income populations to peripheral areas, creating spatial mismatches between residential areas and educational opportunities provided by public higher education institutions. These patterns reflect inequalities that constrain educational accessibility and limit urban resilience. To examine these dynamics, this study applies a geospatial framework to develop an Educational Spatial Injustice Index (ESII) that quantifies disparities in Chihuahua, Mexico. Mobility metrics derived from Google Maps API are combined with census microdata, to analyze 108 high-demand census tracts (AGEBs) linked with seven public higher education institutions. The ESII is constructed through a multi-criteria weighting scheme based on travel time, monetary cost and network distance. Results show a clear north–south pattern, with higher ESII values concentrated in southern peripheries (0.85/1.0), where mean daily travel time reaches 3.45 h. Statistical analysis shows that the Social Lag Index (IRS; ρ = 0.729) has the strongest association with the Global ESII. Furthermore, spatial regression modeling reveals that while operational transit connectivity (bus routes) is a significant mitigating factor (p < 0.001), the mere physical presence of infrastructure (bus stops) is not. These findings suggest that spatial injustice in educational accessibility is more deeply rooted in structural urban growth patterns and socio-spatial inequalities than in simple infrastructure provision. The results support targeted planning strategies to improve accessibility and strengthen urban resilience in intermediate cities.