Medium and Large-Scale Application of Nature-Based Countermeasures to Mitigate Urban Heat Island Phenomena

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Biometeorology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 8649

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
ENEA Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Via Anguillarese, 301, S. Maria di Galeria, 00123 Rome, Italy
Interests: building energy efficiency; urban climate; urban sustainability; built environment; urban heat island; global warming; local warming; energy transition; decarbonization
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Department of Agro-Environmental Sciences, University of Bari, Via Amendola, 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy
Interests: urban forestry; urban ecology urban sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
ENEA Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Via Anguillarese, 301, S. Maria di Galeria, 00123 Rome, Italy
Interests: dynamic thermal modelling; building energy modelling; energy performance in buildings; building energy efficiency; built environment; urban heat island; district heating modelling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cities are the place where currently most of the global population lives. Urbanization gives rise to an unintended increase in urban temperature compared to the rural environs, known as the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon. UHI affects human health and increases building energy use for cooling, exacerbating climate change that, in turn, impacts urban population health.

It is imperative to break such a vicious cycle to provide a better urban environment and to contribute mitigating climate change. Nature-based solutions (NbS) can provide better urban conditions depending on a variety of factors, such as climate, scale of the intervention, and urban pattern, to name a few.

In such a context, the open access journal Atmosphere is hosting a Special Issue to showcase recent research in the field of UHI mitigation by means of NbS.

The proposed Special Issue aims at showcasing the effect of NbS at a scale which is bigger than the single intervention, namely at the scale of urban block or bigger.

Ultimately, the proposed Special Issue is also the appropriate venue for papers which:

  • investigate the environmental, societal, and economic impacts deriving from NbS UHI mitigation;
  • show scientific analyses about real life experiences about the application of NbS-based urban plans or urban policies to urban contexts plagued by UHI;
  • showcase analyses on urban contexts to which NbS mitigation measures are applied based on models or on simulations;
  • explore the effect of NbS installation on urban expansion scenarios or on climate scenarios for the next 50–100 years.

Dr. Tiziana Susca
Prof. Dr. Giovanni Sanesi
Dr. Fabio Zanghirella
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • urban heat island (UHI)
  • UHI mitigation
  • nature-based solutions (NbS)
  • NbS mitigation measures
  • urban scale
  • future urban expansion
  • environmental impacts
  • societal impacts
  • economic impacts
  • simulation

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 11256 KiB  
Article
A Circulation Weather Type Analysis of Urban Effects on Daily Thermal Range for Milan (Italy)
by Giuseppe Colangelo, Giovanni Sanesi, Luigi Mariani, Simone G. Parisi and Gabriele Cola
Atmosphere 2022, 13(9), 1529; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13091529 - 19 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1252
Abstract
We present a first attempt to analyse the effect of a large urban park (Parco Nord Milano—PNM) on the Urban Heat Island (UHI) of the city area of Milan. Specifically, analysis of the effect of three cyclonic and three anticyclonic circulation weather types [...] Read more.
We present a first attempt to analyse the effect of a large urban park (Parco Nord Milano—PNM) on the Urban Heat Island (UHI) of the city area of Milan. Specifically, analysis of the effect of three cyclonic and three anticyclonic circulation weather types (CWTs) on the frequency distribution of the daily thermal range (DTR) of five weather stations in Milan shows the stabilizing effect of the city on the DTR when compared with suburban and rural areas, generating a modal class of 4 °C in winter and 9 °C in summer. In parallel, a temperature transect of the urban park Parco Nord Milano was performed by bicycle during a day of anticyclonic summer weather in order to understand the effect of the park on the UHI. This investigation highlighted the homogenization effect on temperatures induced by the thermal turbulence triggered by intense sunshine. Full article
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20 pages, 6255 KiB  
Article
Lowering the Temperature to Increase Heat Equity: A Multi-Scale Evaluation of Nature-Based Solutions in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
by Vidya Anderson, William A. Gough, Matej Zgela, Dragan Milosevic and Jelena Dunjic
Atmosphere 2022, 13(7), 1027; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13071027 - 28 Jun 2022
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3256
Abstract
Nature-based solutions (NbS) present an opportunity to reduce rising temperatures and the urban heat island effect. A multi-scale study in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, evaluates the effect of NbS on air and land surface temperature through two field campaigns at the micro and meso [...] Read more.
Nature-based solutions (NbS) present an opportunity to reduce rising temperatures and the urban heat island effect. A multi-scale study in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, evaluates the effect of NbS on air and land surface temperature through two field campaigns at the micro and meso scales, using in situ measurements and LANDSAT imagery. This research demonstrates that the application of NbS in the form of green infrastructure has a beneficial impact on urban climate regimes with measurable reductions in air and land surface temperatures. Broad implementation of green infrastructure is a sustainable solution to improve the urban climate, enhance heat and greenspace equity, and increase resilience. Full article
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17 pages, 6400 KiB  
Article
Environmental Effects from Pocket Park Design According to District Planning Patterns—Cases from Xi’an, China
by Jiajie Hou, Yupeng Wang, Dian Zhou and Zhe Gao
Atmosphere 2022, 13(2), 300; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13020300 - 10 Feb 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3243
Abstract
Rapid urban expansion leads to the continuous deterioration of the urban thermal environment, which endangers the sustainable development of the city; meanwhile, countries all over the world are becoming increasingly interested in the mitigating effects of urban green spaces on heat islands. In [...] Read more.
Rapid urban expansion leads to the continuous deterioration of the urban thermal environment, which endangers the sustainable development of the city; meanwhile, countries all over the world are becoming increasingly interested in the mitigating effects of urban green spaces on heat islands. In this context, many studies show that pocket parks play an important role in optimizing the thermal environment of urban blocks, especially with the high-intensity development of urban blocks. Moreover, many cities in China have become mature, and it is difficult to open up large green areas. Therefore, to improve the urban thermal environment in summer, it is necessary to adapt to an efficient pocket-park design strategy in blocks. To consider the impact of block development intensity on the design strategy of pocket parks, three pocket parks in blocks with different floor-area ratios in the central area of Xi’an were selected as examples. This research compares the effects of tree density and green-space layout on the thermal environment in different floor-area ratio districts on a summer day using environmental simulation (ENVI-met). The results show that the design strategies of pocket parks in urban blocks with different development intensities are different. High tree density performs better from the perspective of improving the urban thermal environment. For the low and medium development intensity blocks, the effects of the open green space and closed green space are similar, while the open green space layout can significantly improve thermal comfort in high-intensity development blocks. Full article
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