Title: Role of land cover in building sustainable cities for regulating microclimate

Abstract: Microclimates are spatial small-scale climate conditions that are found in localized areas. Cities in arid climate zones can integrate such innovation to design sustainable cities to moderate unbearable temperature extremes. Land surface and air temperature were measured to quantify Urban Heat Island (UHI) under different land cover in Muscat, the capital city of Oman. The study found that all the selected sub-cities have shown variations in UHI influenced by land surface temperature, which ranged from 0.24 to 6.74 °C. The measured land surface temperature indicated maximum UHI values in winter (UHI = 6.74 °C) and summer (UHI = 5.07 °C) seasons. The measured air temperature shows the formation of UHI in the winter season in all sub-cities with a maximum value of 4.65 °C. In contrast, in summer, it occurs only in two sub-cities with values of 0.65 °C and 4.17 °C at night. Analyzing meteorological and remotely sensed data emphasizes findings from field measurements with the formation of UHI in all sub-cities in winter with values ranging between 0.43 and 5.37 °C; meanwhile, its absence in most sub-cities during the summer. There are significant differences (P < 0.05) among the land use types, with the lowest mean value in greenery space (21.70 ± 0.59 °C). The mean land surface temperature concerning land cover type follows the pattern of road > pavement > bare soil > vegetation except for the daytime in summer, clearly demonstrating the influence of vegetation in reducing the UHI effect. This was also verified by the evidence that the air temperature above the vegetation cover was reduced by 1.3 to 2.1 °C and 2.6 to 3.1°C during day and night time, respectively. The outcome of this study is compelling enough for city planners to consider microclimate-informed design to build resilient cities.