Urbanization significantly alters city landscapes, exacerbating the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, where cities experience significantly higher temperatures compared to their rural surroundings due to impervious surfaces and heat emissions. As cities expand, mitigating UHI and improving urban thermal comfort becomes critical. Urban parks play a key role in cooling cities, typically being 1–2°C cooler than surrounding areas, with temperature differences of up to 7°C. This study evaluates the cooling potential of seven urban parks in Kolkata, India, using Landsat 8 for Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Sentinel 2 for vegetation mapping. The study assessed Park Cooling Intensity (PCI) along with related metrics such as Cooling Range & Temperature Drop Amplitude.It also examines how internal park characteristics, including vegetation density, impervious surface fraction, water bodies, & tree height, influence LST. Results show PCI ranges from 0.75–6.84°C, with an average temperature reduction of 2.87°C in park surroundings. Factors like tree height and water bodies enhance PCI, while a negative correlation exists between PCI and park area, suggesting that park size alone does not maximize cooling benefits. Vegetation density and water features are crucial for optimizing PCI, indicating that well-designed park features are more important than park size for UHI mitigation. These findings guide urban planners and policymakers in designing parks that maximize cooling effects, reduce UHI, and enhance urban climate resilience. Strategic planning of park elements can foster healthier, more sustainable cities capable of adapting to climate change and rapid urbanization.

Urban Canopy Parameters (UCPs) are crucial for urban microclimate modeling; however, the scarce availability of precise UCP data in developing regions limits their application for urban climates. This study investigated the use of multi-platform remote sensing data viz. very high-resolution satellite (VHRS) optical stereo and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) datasets for the computation of UCPs in high-density urban scenarios in India, with varied development characteristics. The results demonstrated high accuracy in terms of building height and footprint extraction from both datasets, key inputs for UCP computation. However, UCPs from UAV data have displayed relatively high accuracy for building footprints (86%), building height (RMSE ~ 0.05 m), and land use/land cover classification (90%). Performance evaluation of computed UCPs against a 3D reference geodatabase showed high prediction accuracy for most UCPs, with overall biases, mean absolute error, and root-mean-square error values significantly better than 1 m, with strong correlation (0.8–0.9). It was concluded that VHRS optical stereo and UAV datasets offer a secure, reliable, and accurate solution for UCP computation in urban areas, particularly in developing regions. These findings have significant implications for urban climate research and the sustainable development of rapidly urbanizing areas facing resource and policy constraints.

Greenspaces (GSs) available to the public for recreational, environmental, and aesthetic purposes are termed Public Urban Green Spaces (PUGS). Accessibility to PUGS is one of the main pre-requisite for their frequent use. With rising urbanization and inequitable distribution of GSs, a significant portion of the population remains inaccessible to the benefits provided by PUGS. Therefore, it is essential to have tools to evaluate these GSs. This study evaluates the accessibility and spatial quality of various hierarchies of PUGS using GIS-based analysis in Dehradun, India. Accessibility is assessed using network analysis, aesthetics is determined by the presence of bird population and waterbody, the surface index is determined based on NDVI thresholding, and affordability, and spaciousness are computed based on survey and GIS data. The indices are combined to form a composite green space index (CGSI) using analytical hierarchy process. CGSI shows that most of the PUGS in Dehradun have relatively poor accessibility and quality. As per World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for providing a minimum of 9m² of GS for each person, Dehradun lies way behind, providing 2.02m²/person. The lower hierarchy PUGS, notably totlots, which are crucial for young children’s physical, mental, and cognitive development, is quite limited. On the contrary, city parks are well distributed with moderate to good accessibility and quality. CGSI is a comprehensive index encompassing different characteristics of GSs and serves as a valuable tool for setting goals, prioritizing investments, identifying areas in need of improvement, and potential locations for future GS development.