Urban Heat Islands (UHI) have emerged as a critical environmental and socio-spatial challenge in rapidly urbanizing regions worldwide. The phenomenon is primarily driven by land-use transformations, increasing building density, and the progressive reduction of vegetation cover, all of which contribute to elevated land surface and air temperatures in urban areas compared to their rural surroundings. The UHI effect has far-reaching implications, significantly affecting public health, increasing energy consumption for cooling, and reducing overall urban livability. In recent years, it has also been increasingly recognized as an issue linked to fundamental human rights, including the right to health, adequate housing, and a sustainable and safe environment. Urban populations are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts such as extreme heat events due to high population densities, sealed surfaces, and limited access to green spaces. Consequently, international policy frameworks emphasize the urgent need for climate-resilient urban planning and the adoption of nature-based solutions to mitigate these risks.

The city of Tirana represents a compelling case for investigating the dynamics of the Urban Heat Island effect. Over the past three decades, Tirana has undergone rapid and often unregulated urban expansion, characterized by intensive construction activity, densification, and significant land-cover changes. These processes have substantially altered the urban morphology and have intensified the UHI effect, particularly in densely built central areas. While recent studies have documented temperature variations across the city and identified key drivers such as reduced vegetation, increased impervious surfaces, and urban density, there remains a lack of systematic, spatially explicit, and reproducible analyses. Furthermore, limited attention has been paid to linking these environmental patterns with urban planning policies and the existing legal framework, creating a gap between technical assessments and policy-oriented applications.

Within the Albanian legal context, the Urban Heat Island phenomenon is not explicitly defined as a standalone concept. However, it is indirectly addressed through a set of interrelated legal instruments, including legislation on territorial planning and development, environmental protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation, energy efficiency, and the energy performance of buildings. These laws collectively promote principles of sustainable development, encourage the integration of green infrastructure, and support measures aimed at enhancing climate resilience. At the local level, the Tirana General Local Plan (TR030) incorporates provisions related to ecological corridors, natural systems, and the expansion of public green spaces. Although these instruments do not directly target UHI, they establish an institutional and regulatory framework that contributes to mitigating urban heat, highlighting an implicit obligation for public authorities to address the phenomenon more explicitly in future planning processes.

This study aims to investigate the spatial and temporal dynamics of the Urban Heat Island effect in Tirana over a ten-year period. The research adopts a fully open and reproducible approach by relying exclusively on Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) and openly available Earth Observation data. The primary objectives are to identify UHI hotspots, analyze their relationship with vegetation cover and built-up expansion, and evaluate how these spatial patterns correspond to existing planning and legal instruments. By doing so, the study seeks to bridge the gap between geospatial analysis and policy-making, offering insights that can inform evidence-based urban planning.

The methodological framework is based on satellite imagery obtained from Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 missions. Land Surface Temperature (LST) is derived using established radiometric calibration and atmospheric correction techniques to ensure accuracy and comparability over time. Vegetation dynamics are assessed through the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which is further used to calculate the Proportion of Vegetation (PV), providing a more detailed understanding of vegetative cover distribution. Urban expansion and built-up intensity are analyzed using the Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI), enabling the identification of areas experiencing significant urban growth.

All data processing, analysis, and visualization are conducted using open-source tools, primarily QGIS, alongside Python-based libraries such as GDAL, rasterio, and NumPy. This approach ensures that the entire workflow is transparent, reproducible, and accessible, aligning with the principles of open science and the FOSS community. Moreover, it demonstrates that advanced geospatial analysis can be conducted without reliance on proprietary software, making it particularly relevant for researchers and institutions with limited resources.

Preliminary findings reveal a strong spatial correlation between elevated Land Surface Temperatures and densely built areas with limited vegetation cover, particularly in the central zones of Tirana. In contrast, areas characterized by higher NDVI values, including parks, green corridors, and peri-urban zones, consistently exhibit lower temperatures, confirming the cooling effect of vegetation and green infrastructure. Additionally, areas undergoing rapid urban development show a noticeable increase in thermal intensity over time, suggesting that current planning measures may be insufficient to counterbalance the thermal impacts of urbanization.

The study contributes to the broader geospatial and FOSS community by presenting a comprehensive, open, and transferable methodology for analyzing Urban Heat Islands in medium-sized cities. It highlights the value of integrating geospatial technologies with legal and planning analysis, thereby bridging the divide between technical research and policy implementation. The findings support the need for more proactive and climate-sensitive urban planning strategies, including the expansion of green spaces, the use of permeable and reflective materials, and stricter regulation of building density and land use.

Ultimately, this research underscores the critical role of open-source tools in advancing sustainable, climate-resilient, and human-centered urban development. By providing a robust evidence base and a reproducible analytical framework, it aims to support decision-makers, planners, and researchers in addressing the growing challenges posed by the Urban Heat Island effect in Tirana and beyond.