As cities grapple with rising temperatures, the integration of urban greenery has gained recognition as a viable solution to mitigate these effects and enhance outdoor thermal conditions. This paper identifies widely used and emerging numerical models, highlights research gaps, and addresses key insights from the selected literature. Grounded in a PRISMA-based review, it offers insights to optimize strategies for mitigating urban heat islands and enhancing livability. The study explores synergies and trade-offs between green infrastructure and the built environment, aiming to provide insights into optimizing these elements for sustainable urban development. In this research, a mixed-methods approach was adopted by combining a systematic review and a bibliometric review using the PRISMA 2020 and VOSviewer 1.6.19 of 48 relevant studies. The PRISMA process led to the selection of the papers used for both the qualitative synthesis and bibliometric analysis. The results indicate a significant increase in research output in the last decades with a marked focus on green roofs, urban parks, and vertical greening systems. Our findings provide an elaborate conceptual framework that maps the interrelation between the research topics. Also, the study highlights existing research gaps in numerical modeling software for evaluating the cooling potential of urban greenery and its impact on thermal comfort across diverse urban contexts. The study recommends developing standardized frameworks and metrics for evaluating thermal comfort in urban areas, as well as suggesting that advancing numerical modeling software is essential to accurately simulate the complex interactions between urban greenery, microclimates, and urban forms.

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is a method employed in area-based developments to address civic mobility, automation, inequality, community, equality, and climate change in metropolises. This research paper utilizes a comparative analysis of various published papers to create a cohesive analytical study. The main goal is to identify critical parameters that contribute to the success of TOD. It examines highly successful global examples of TOD, including Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Shenzhen, México, and Washington D.C., to understand how the aforementioned parameters impact TOD development and its achievements. Indian cities are making substantial investments in public transportation and transitioning into transit hubs. The success of this progress depends on implementing TOD regulations, such as zoning rules for mixed-land use, density control, limited parking, PPP finance, and fostering collaboration between public and private agencies near transit stations. In conclusion, while planning frameworks have been widely adopted and implemented by various countries, financial frameworks play a more pivotal role in influencing success, making TOD more practically viable worldwide.

Urbanization and climate change are intricately linked, significantly influencing local and regional thermal environments. Kolkata, a rapidly expanding metropolitan city in India, has witnessed substantial shifts in urban thermal dynamics due to increasing land surface temperatures (LST), the urban heat island (UHI) effect, and heightened thermal discomfort. This study integrates high-resolution remote sensing data and a cloud-based platform via Google Earth Engine (GEE) to assess spatiotemporal changes in thermal discomfort in Kolkata. The study employs the urban thermal field variance index (UTFVI) to estimate the urban thermal discomfort, while the Sen's Slope estimator and the modified Mann-Kendall tests are applied to assess long-term spatiotemporal trends in urban thermal conditions. Findings reveal that LST, UHI, and UTFVI are significantly increasing at the rates of 0.149°C/year, 0.041°C/year, and 0.0041°C/year, respectively. The results further reveal that those areas with low vegetation cover experience extreme thermal stress, highlighting the critical role of urban greenery in mitigating heat-related discomfort. The study offers data-driven insights into Kolkata's urban thermal landscape, with guidance for policymakers in developing sustainable urban planning and climate adaptation strategies, such as expanding green spaces, implementing cool roof technologies, and enhancing urban ventilation. By leveraging cloud-based remote sensing, this study provides a scalable framework for assessing and addressing urban thermal discomfort in other rapidly urbanizing cities worldwide.

One of the fundamental criteria architects consider when designing schools, colleges, or educational buildings is the daylight in the classrooms. It is desirable to provide more usable daylight in buildings, not only to conserve energy, but also to improve the performance and productivity of the occupants. Daylight systems can reduce the artificial lighting requirements of a building while achieving appropriate illumination levels inside the space. In this study, classroom models were designed as per Indian Standard: 8827-1978, considering the room size in the ratio 1:1.5, a window on one side of the wall with an opening equal to 20% of the floor area, and a work desk at 0.80 m above the floor level. The study was conducted to investigate the illumination performance in the composite climatic zone of Central India using a computer simulation tool for various combinations, such as window opening, shading devices, months, and timings. The design sky illumination was set at 12,000 lux under an overcast sky condition. The simulation results exhibited that the shading devices are very effective in restricting the excessive illumination levels in accordance with Indian Standard: 8827-1978. Shading for the south-facing windows reduced the illumination levels from 708 lux to 392 lux in April and from 5873 lux to 3645 lux in December, preventing the glare and overheating. Shading for the north-facing windows provided 310 to 351 lux in April and August, making them perfect for a classroom under daylight. These results highlight the importance of orientation-specific shading strategies for classrooms, which are relevant in the composite climate of Central India.

Rapid urbanization and climate change have intensified the urban heat island (UHI) effect, creating significant challenges for achieving thermal comfort in cities. As extreme heat events grow more frequent, urban greenery is increasingly recognized as a key strategy for outdoor cooling. However, the underlying mechanisms like shading, evapotranspiration, and wind modulation, remain inconsistently assessed across studies and highly sensitive to site conditions and research methods. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of 50 peer-reviewed articles, guided by the PRISMA 2020 protocol. We applied bibliometric analysis and thematic coding to extract and synthesize greenery-related indicators, including canopy cover, vegetation structure, spatial layout, and technological integration. This review introduces a five-part typology of strategies for enhancing thermal comfort through urban greenery: design configuration, site-specific planning, technological tools, community engagement, and performance monitoring. A structured quality assessment was applied to classify study reliability and confidence in reported outcomes. High-confidence studies combining empirical validation and thermal indices reported consistent ambient temperature reductions between 1.5°C and 4.5°C. Building on these findings, the study proposes a conceptual framework linking greenery inputs, environmental mediators, and contextual modifiers to thermal comfort outcomes. It also identifies equity gaps, particularly in underrepresented tropical and arid regions, and critiques the exclusion of non-open-access and grey literature as a limitation. This synthesis advances a more integrated, evidence-based foundation for climate-responsive urban design and offers practical guidance for policymakers, planners, and researchers committed to building resilient and equitable urban environments.