Saddam et al. (2026) LST-Based Heritage-Sensitive Greening for Surface Heat Mitigation in Zabid, Yemen: A Spatial Decision-Support Framework for Earthen Historic Cities

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Land
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-15
• Authors: Ehab Tawfik Khaled Saddam, Xin Cao, Alaa Alhazmi
• DOI: 10.3390/land15091708

Research Groups

• Department of Architecture, University of Sana'a
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre
• Yemeni Ministry of Culture

Short Summary

This study develops a decision-support framework for heritage-sensitive greening in historic earthen cities, balancing thermal comfort and moisture risk using land surface temperature (LST) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI).

Objective

• Investigate the tension between thermal stress reduction and moisture process intensification in historic earthen cities through greening.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Historic Town of Zabid, Yemen (UNESCO World Heritage site)
• Temporal Scale: Hot season (May-June 2024)

Methodology and Data

• Models used: LST-based decision-support framework using GIS rule logic
• Data sources: Landsat scenes (23 May and 8 June 2024), NDVI, hotspot extraction

Main Results

• Recurrent daytime cool-core in the historic core (1.69 °C and 1.78 °C below surrounding buffer)
• LST declining 2.76 °C across NDVI gradient
• Overheating concentrated on vegetation-deficient surfaces (98.40% of hotspot area fell within lowest NDVI classes)

Contributions

• Provides a planning-level method for heritage-sensitive greening in historic earthen cities, balancing thermal comfort and moisture risk.

Funding

• UNESCO World Heritage Centre project "Conservation of Historic Earthen Cities"
• Yemeni Ministry of Culture program "Preservation of Cultural Heritage"

Citation

@article{Saddam2026LSTBased,
  author = {Saddam, Ehab Tawfik Khaled and Cao, Xin and Alhazmi, Alaa},
  title = {LST-Based Heritage-Sensitive Greening for Surface Heat Mitigation in Zabid, Yemen: A Spatial Decision-Support Framework for Earthen Historic Cities},
  journal = {Land},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.3390/land15091708},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/land15091708}
}