The current methods for mapping and forecasting human outdoor thermal comfort in urban environments

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the stated research gap and stated challenges and future-work section of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2024 and 2026, spanning 4 journals. Those papers have been cited 105 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 8 representative gaps

• Urban Growth Dynamics and Air Quality in an Indian Metropolitan City: Deciphering Through Intra-Urban Heterogeneity and Inter-Variable Interactions (2026) · Earth Systems and Environment · doi

  The lack of understanding of the spatial and seasonal relationships between urban expansion and air quality. The need for a spatially explicit framework for understanding urban-air quality interactions. The importance of integrating urban growth indicators, demographic factors, land-use characteristics, and meteorological parameters.

  generalstated research gapevidence 5/5
  Keywords: lack understanding spatial seasonal relationships between urban expansion
• Spatial Modeling of the Impact of Climate Change on Thermal Comfort Using Geospatial Techniques and Artificial Neural Networks: A Case Study of Northwest Jordan (2026) · Urban Science · doi

  The study area has significant spatiotemporal differences in thermal comfort. The combined effects of multiple climatic factors, including temperature, humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation, pose a challenge to modeling thermal comfort. The lack of high-quality spatial distribution maps of thermal comfort in the study area poses a challenge.

  generalstated challengesevidence 5/5
  Keywords: study area has significant spatiotemporal differences thermal comfort
• Mapping Heat Stress and Evaporative Cooling Potentials in South European Cities: Humidity Constraints and Water-Based Cooling Opportunities (2026) · Urban Science · cited 1× · doi

  A quantitative multivariate attribution to test the relative influence of altitude, vegetation fraction, latitude, urban form, and air quality, - Expanding the city sample and integrating quantitative descriptors of land cover, morphology and anthropogenic heat, - Evaluating sensitivity using coupled urban climate/building approaches, - Integrating physiological indices (e.g., UTCI) and/or building simulation to connect climate-suitability hours to indoor risk and energy outcomes under realistic operating assumptions

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 5/5
  Keywords: quantitative multivariate attribution test relative influence altitude vegetation
• Introducing the T-MCCR Index for Evaluating Urban Thermal Comfort and Morphological Performance (2026) · Urban Science · cited 1× · doi

  Applying the T-MCCR to different spatial scales, from individual urban parcels to district-level configurations - Exploring the impact of climate change on the thermal performance of different urban morphologies - Incorporating land use, activity patterns, and accessibility alongside morphology in the assessment of thermal comfort

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 5/5
  Keywords: applying t-mccr different spatial scales individual urban parcels
• Urban Adaptation to Climate Change: Climate Refuge Networks as a Strategy to Mitigate Thermal Stress (2026) · Urban Science · cited 1× · doi

  Uneven availability of official inventories, activation protocols, and monitoring outputs for urban climate refuges. Limited systematic learning and evidence-based scaling of interventions across cities. Need for performance-oriented indicators for refuge research, including air and surface temperature differentials and thermal comfort indices.

  generalstated research gapevidence 5/5
  Keywords: uneven availability official inventories activation protocols monitoring outputs
• High-resolution multi-scaling of outdoor human thermal comfort and its intra-urban variability based on machine learning (2024) · Geoscientific model development · cited 51× · doi

  The paper identifies a gap in the current methods for mapping and forecasting human outdoor thermal comfort in urban environments. The current numerical urban climate models are complex and computationally expensive. There is a need for a more accurate and efficient method to predict thermal comfort.

  generalstated research gapevidence 5/5
  Keywords: paper identifies gap current methods mapping forecasting human
• High-resolution multi-scaling of outdoor human thermal comfort and its intra-urban variability based on machine learning (2024) · Geoscientific model development · cited 51× · doi

  The paper identifies the challenge of accurately predicting thermal comfort in urban environments. It also mentions the challenge of dealing with the complexity and computational expense of numerical urban climate models. Another challenge is the need for high-resolution spatial data to simulate street-level thermal comfort.

  generalstated challengesevidence 5/5
  Keywords: paper identifies challenge accurately predicting thermal comfort urban
• Radiation-focused UTCI analysis of urban morphology in Riyadh’s hyper-arid residential fabric (2026) · Frontiers in Built Environment · doi

  Further research is needed to understand the interaction between urban form and local microclimatic performance, - Studies could investigate the effects of other urban morphology parameters on outdoor thermal comfort, - Research could focus on developing more complex and realistic models of urban microclimates

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 4/5
  Keywords: further research needed understand interaction between urban form

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