Is Indonesia's New Capital at Risk of Urban Heat Stress?: A Perspective

Rapid urban development modifies land surface properties, atmospheric composition, and hydroclimatic processes, which has resulted in with important implications for urban heat stress, climate resilience, and public health, particularly in tropical regions. This perspective examines whether Ibu Kota Nusantara (IKN) is entering an early phase of heat-prone urban transformation by integrating satellite-derived land surface, atmospheric, and rainfall indicators within a cloudbased environmental computing framework. The temporal trends in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI), Land Surface Temperature (LST), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), methane (CH₄), and annual rainfall for 2013–2023 period were obtained from Google Earth Engine. The results reveal distinct vegetation decline, rapid built-up expansion, and a substantial rise in surface temperature following the acceleration of large-scale development after 2022. Concurrent increases in CO, NO₂, and CH₄ were observed, while rainfall variability alone did not explain the vegetation loss. These signals have indicated an emerging risk of urban heat stress and highlight the value of satellitebased environmental computing for early-warning detection and climate-sensitive urban planning.