Although research on the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect has increased in recent decades, most literature reviews either focus on aspects of the UHI research or do not investigate the relationships between different factors, influencing the trends in the field. This literature review follows a holistic approach to explore the trends within multiple disciplines in the recent UHI research considering the synergies among them. The cause-and-effect relationship between input and output data parameters is analysed together with the applied approach, temporal scope, and target study area. 120 publications from three repositories, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus, were used for the initial collection of relevant publications with a focus on the effect of different parameters on UHI, following country-specific mitigation and adaptation strategies. Most publications have a limited temporal scope and rarely report on combinations between past, present and future periods. Furthermore, numerical simulations, especially those based on the ENVI-met and Weather Research & Forecasting Model (WRF) model, were found to be one of the most used approaches. The results of this study provide broad insights into the UHI research achievements and give an overview of the present and up-to-date technologies and strategies for effective UHI approach and mitigation.