Search results for "Island"
showing 10 items of 761 documents
Performances of GPM satellite precipitation over the two major Mediterranean islands
2018
Reliable and accurate precipitation measurement or estimation is crucial for disaster monitoring and water resource management. However, obtaining accurate high-resolution precipitation fields is still a challenging task for scientists and practitioners, especially in the poorer region of the world. Nowadays the scientific community expects significant improvements in precipitation monitoring by the continuous technological evolution of satellite-rainfall estimate systems which are able to produce data with global coverage and thus can provide low-cost information even in scarcely populated areas or places where for economic reasons ground measures are missing. The most recent satellite mis…
Pathway using WUDAPT's Digital Synthetic City tool towards generating urban canopy parameters for multi-scale urban atmospheric modeling
2019
Abstract The WUDAPT (World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools project goal is to capture consistent information on urban form and function for cities worldwide that can support urban weather, climate, hydrology and air quality modeling. These data are provided as urban canopy parameters (UCPs) as used by weather, climate and air quality models to simulate the effects of urban surfaces on the overlying atmosphere. Information is stored with different levels of detail (LOD). With higher LOD greater spatial precision is provided. At the lowest LOD, Local Climate Zones (LCZ) with nominal UCP ranges is provided (order 100 m or more). To describe the spatial heterogeneity present in cities wi…
Are urban water bodies really cooling?
2020
Abstract Small urban water bodies, like ponds or canals, are often assumed to cool their surroundings during hot periods, when water bodies remain cooler than air during daytime. However, during the night they may be warmer. Sufficient fetch is required for thermal effects to reach a height of 1–2 m, relevant for humans. In the ‘Really cooling water bodies in cities’ (REALCOOL) project thermal effects of typical Dutch urban water bodies were explored, using ENVI-met 4.1.3. This model version enables users to specify intensity of turbulent mixing and light absorption of the water, offering improved water temperature simulations. Local thermal effects near individual water bodies were assesse…
Analysis of the heat-island effect of the city of Valencia, Spain, through air temperature transects and NOAA satellite data
1991
The aim of this paper is to analyze the heat-island effect of the city of Valencia, Spain, by means of the traditional technique (transects of the air temperature measured from a car) and by means of NOAA satellite thermal images. The analysis includes the nights of 27 and 28 February 1988, on which a light radiative frost occurred. Satellite images were corrected for the emissivity effect by defining an effective emissivity, which was obtained from the emissivity values of the asphalt, walls and roofs of the buildings, and from the proportion of these elements in each pixel. By comparing air temperature values with corrected NOAA data, we have observed that the value of the heat-island eff…
Modeling impacts of super cool roofs on air temperature at pedestrian level in mesoscale and microscale climate models
2021
Abstract Passive daytime radiative cooling is gaining increasing relevance as recent studies report that newly developed materials with very high reflectivity and emissivity could be able to effectively reduce urban heat stress, when applied as roofing material (super cool roofs). A recent microscale sensitivity study with ENVI-met modeled the impact of super cool roofs with maximum air temperature reductions of around 0.85 K at pedestrian level for an idealized model area. To verify these findings in real urban structures featuring complex building morphologies and varying meteorological conditions, we conducted climate simulations for two contrasting cities: New York City, NY, and Phoenix…
Effects of Urbanization on the Temperature Inversion Breakup in a Mountain Valley with Implications for Air Quality
2014
AbstractMany cities located in valleys with limited ventilation experience serious air pollution problems. The ventilation of an urban valley can be limited not only by orographic barriers, but also by urban heat island–induced circulations and/or the capping effect of temperature inversions. Furthermore, land-use/-cover changes caused by urbanization alter the dynamics of temperature inversions and urban heat islands, thereby affecting air quality in an urban valley. By means of idealized numerical simulations, it is shown that in a mountain valley subject to temperature inversions urbanization can have an important influence on air quality through effects on the inversion breakup. Dependi…
Optical Remote Sensing in Urban Environments
2016
International audience; Cities today face a variety of issues: attractiveness and economic development, living conditions and urban redevelopment, the quality of life of citizens and the environmental conditions of the urban system as a whole. These challenges reflect the situations in urban territories where the economic development and population growth required for stabilizing the urban system come into conflict with the promotion of esthetic urban improvements appropriate for social cohesion and ensuring the safety of users while guaranteeing a reduction of the environmental impact caused by urban spread [WGI 14, WEB 15, MAC 07, WIL 11]. The process of urbanization, which has significan…
Helianthemum scopulicolum (Cistaceae), a new species from Majorca (Balearic Islands, Spain)
1999
Rupicolous plants coming from a single Balearic locality are described as a new species, Helianthemum scopulicolum. The plant is diploid (2n=20) and belongs to Helianthemum subgenus Helianthemum sect. Helianthemum. On morphological grounds, Helianthemum scopulicolum is related to some members of the H. apenninum aggregate, notably H. apenninum s.l., H. asperum and H. violaceum. However, the new species can be distinguished on the basis of leaves green, shining, glabrescent on the adaxial surface, deciduous short bracts, glabrescent inner sepals lacking long setae and pink-purple flowers.
Euphorbia Nurae P. Fraga & Rosselló (Euphorbiaceae), a New Species from Minorca (Balearic Islands)
2011
Abstract FRAGA-ARGUIMBAU, P. & J. A. ROSSELLO (2011). Euphorbia nurae P. Fraga & Rossello (Euphorbiaceae), a new species from Minorca (Balearic Islands). Candollea 66: 181–190. In English, English and French abstracts. Euphorbia nurae P. Fraga & Rossello (Euphorbiaceae sect. Cymatospermum (Prokh.) Prokh.) is described as a new species from coastal sites of Minorca (Balearic Islands). Morphological features suggest that Euphorbia exigua L., Euphorbia dracunculoides Lam. and Euphorbia sulcata Loisel. are the most closely related taxa, but the new species can be easily discriminated by several morphological characters.
Metric discrimination and distribution of the species of Crocidura occuring in Tunisia
1992
A recent paper on the occurrence of the genus Crocidura in Tunisia reports a single specimen identified as C. suaveolens. Therefore a third species, besides C. russula and C. whitakeri would occur in the country. However, the presence of C. suaveolens in North-Africa is controversial and was recently ruled out from the other Maghrebi countries (Algieria and Morocco). During the period 1989-90, 71 specimens of shrews were collected from owls pellets or trapped at Tunisian 12 sites. This material was measured and studied both by classic morphometric and multivariate methods (Fuzzy test, Principal Coordinate Analysis and Generalized Procrustes Analysis), considering also reference samples (C. …