Application and future of local climate zone system in urban climate assessment and planning-Bibliometrics and meta-analysis

In recent years, the concept of Local Climate Zone (LCZ) has been widely used in various cross-cutting areas of urban climate planning and has the potential to become a generalized assessment tool. Although the underlying framework for detailed LCZ theory and mapping has been proposed, a generalized methodology and multidisciplinary cross-cutting applicability arguments are still lacking, which is not friendly enough for future LCZ synergistic urban planning and policy output. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive survey of empirical studies of LCZ systems in cities to improve the understanding and address the above issues. In this study, bibliometric analysis and meta-analysis were used to provide a systematic review of LCZ empirical studies over the past decade; analyze the number of studies, geographical distribution, keywords and research hotspots; and discuss the following themes: conducting studies on a global scale; establishing a new standardized mapping process; heat island assessment based on global datasets; using LCZ as a tool for assessing the thermal health of cities; improving the compatibility of the LCZ framework with climate models; and urban planning and design applications incorporating nonphysical factors. Scientific and practical communities can quickly clarify the current status and challenges of using LCZ in urban climate planning and provide references for expanding the application of LCZ.