Search results for "Urban climate"

Interactions, spillovers de connaissance et croissance des économies modernes. Faut-il préférer la globalisation ou la proximité géographique ?

2009

Globalisation and metropolisation in modern economies induce some locational strategies of knowledge based activities towards cities and deeply increase trade and move of ideas across cities. In that context, we study the way knowledge spillovers have influenced the economic growth of 82 European Metropolises over the 1990-2005 period. We model knowledge spillovers across cities according to three specific interaction patterns depending either on geography or on global advanced services or thought a combination of these patterns. We show that the mixed pattern matters the best for economic growth of cities in Europe.

Numerical Modelling of the Urban Climate

1988

Three-dimensional numerical models of the urban climate have been developed in order to simulate climatic changes and air pollution in urban regions due to anthropogenic activities. Two versions are presented. Model A covers mesoscale γ and uses the roughness length to characterize surface structure. The microscale version B approximates the actual urban build-up by rectangular blocks. Model A results agree reasonably well with observations. For complex building structures, the microscale model must be applied. Model B results on neutral flow and pollutant transport within a particular building configuration are discussed.

How relevant are local climate zones and urban climate zones for urban climate research? Dijon (France) as a case study.

2018

17 pages; International audience; Several typologies of urban surface properties have been proposed, in recent years, for urban heat island studies and climate modeling. Some were specifically developed for cities and urban climate issues, like the Urban Climate Zones, and the more recent Local Climate Zones. The initial objective of this paper is to evaluate the capacity of these two typologies to identify thermal environments in and around cities, and to determine which typology best captures the daily spatio-temporal patterns of surface and urban canopy heat islands. To simulate urban climate with a model, LULC data based on a given typology are required. To avoid circularity, we combine…

Corrigendum to ‘Pathway using WUDAPT's Digital Synthetic City tool towards generating urban canopy parameters for multi-scale urban atmospheric model…

2019

How to bring urban and global climate studies together with urban planning and architecture?

2020

Abstract Climate friendly urban planning plays a key role in climate change mitigation and adaptation and allows for sustainable development of living conditions for future generations. It has been long understood that measures such as urban greening, planted facades and roofs or highly reflecting building materials are able to dampen excess heat and help reducing energetic costs. Transferring scientific and often theoretical knowledge into actual urban planning however necessarily involves an interdisciplinary dialogue. This paper intends to provide a review of existing literature from a meteorological perspective in order to answer the question how results from urban climate studies can b…

A Regional Geography Approach to Understanding the Environmental Changes as a Consequence of the COVID-19 Lockdown in Highly Populated Spanish Cities

2021

Spain has been highly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is reflected at different scales. From an economic point of view, lockdowns and the reduction of activities have damaged the country (e.g., complete lockdown from March 13 to June 21, 2020). However, it is not clear if the associated environmental impacts could be observed in 2020. Currently, studies on the effects of the lockdown (e.g., decrease in economic activities, transport and social communication) on specific parameters related to climate change, such as air temperature or air pollution, due to a drastic decrease in human activities are rare. They are focused on specific cities and short periods of time. Therefore, the m…

Benefits of Urban Green Space for Improving Urban Climate

2007

Urban settlements transform the natural environment so greatly that people tend to see the city only as an employment site, and economic and cultural center. Thus a growing number of people prefer to reside in greener suburbs or rural areas. This results in increased automobile commuter traffic, accompanied by traffic jams, accidents, stress, and ever more damage to the environment. Concepts of sustainable development or the ecological city represent strategies for changing these negative trends. The purpose for doing so is principally the well-being of a city’s residents. Often this entails bringing more of the natural environment back into the city, because urban green space fulfills seve…

Research on ecological design to enhance comfort in open spaces of a city (Valencia, Spain). Utility of the physiological equivalent temperature (PET)

2013

For many years now, research has focused on issues concerning making cities easier to live in and some of the most important of these concern climatology and thermal comfort issues. There is also a growing awareness of the importance of open spaces and green areas, as key elements in providing opportunities for human interaction, leisure and physical exercise. They are important for all inhabitants, but particularly so for children and the elderly population. Of especial interest are the studies which have examined the interaction of comfort with the urban climate. This issue was studied throughout the twentieth century, but recently the role which can be played by biometeorological indices…

Removing the relocation bias from the 155-year Haparanda temperature record in Northern Europe

2017

The village Haparanda in northern Sweden hosts one of the longest meteorological station records in Europe depicting climate conditions in the subarctic. Since the station was relocated several times, moving gradually from urbanized to more rural areas, the record is likely biased by anthropogenic influences. We here assess these influences and demonstrate that even in villages urban heat island biases might affect the temperature readings. We detail a method to quantify this bias and remove it from the long Haparanda station record running since 1859. The correction is based on parallel temperature measurements at previous station locations in Haparanda. These measurements revealed a disti…

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…