Local climate zones (LCZs) were originally proposed to redefine the rural–urban dichotomy, while providing a standardised framework for urban heat island (UHI) studies worldwide. The UHI phenomenon, characterised by rising land surface temperature (LST), particularly in urban areas, has become a global urban environmental issue. At the same time, experts project that cities in tropical macroclimate regions will experience UHI effects more rapidly. Therefore, this literature review examines the development of the LCZ framework and identifies future research directions to address global climate change, particularly within tropical urban environments. The study employs the PRISMA framework within the Scopus database, identifying 51 documents suitable for further analysis. Descriptive analysis indicates that LCZ studies are distributed across 60 cities, with Nagpur (India) being the most prominent. Meanwhile, the publication frequency fluctuates, with 2024 recording the highest number. A bibliometric analysis of authors revealed that at least 10 of the most productive researchers originated from different countries, institutions and disciplines. In addition, a bibliometric analysis of keywords identified 18 terms with the highest co‑occurrence rates, which constitute the themes of current LCZ research. Remote sensing (RS)-based methods, employing supervised pixel-based analysis with a random forest classifier developed within the WUDAPT project, dominate LCZ mapping approaches, alongside expert-based and geographic information system (GIS)-based methods. Based on a thematic analysis, the applications of LCZ across various fields include the UHI effect and its mitigation, surface temperature monitoring, heat risk, heat stress and heat hazards, thermal comfort, energy consumption and balance, urban climate modelling, urban planning, and other applications such as urban health and air quality. In the future, LCZ in tropical macroclimate regions is likely to become a highly complex field of study, requiring the involvement of multidisciplinary approaches.