Microclimate Variations and Urban Heat Island

A special issue of Climate (ISSN 2225-1154).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 June 2023) | Viewed by 7811

Special Issue Editors

Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada
Interests: energy saving; environmental issues; microclimate; urban heat island
Social Systems Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba-City, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan
Interests: urban climatology; urban environment; energy systems; urban heat island mitigation; climate change; urban wind; Chinese environmental issues
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With urbanization and the changing of the urban landscape, the local climate is modified. Most urban areas become warmer during the summer because of the change in the landscape and the resulting urban heat island (UHI). On top of that, urban dwellers face the cumulative effects of global warming and UHI. 

The focus of this Special Issue is collecting recent research on the urban microclimate, the factors that affect it, the relationship with the urban heat island, and new knowledge of the urban climate that is relevant when realizing community design for urban climate resilience. The specific focus of the SI is the microclimate below the urban canopy, with an emphasis on measures to improve outdoor comfort to achieve a comfortable and healthy urban life and ecology.

Prof. Dr. Hashem Akbari
Prof. Dr. Toshiaki Ichinose
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • urban microclimate
  • microclimate variations
  • urban heat island
  • urban design
  • urban planning
  • adaptation
  • cool urban surfaces (roofs, walls, and pavements)
  • urban vegetation

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 12409 KiB  
Article
Local Climate Zones, Sky View Factor and Magnitude of Daytime/Nighttime Urban Heat Islands in Balneário Camboriú, SC, Brazil
by Ismael Luiz Hoppe, Cassio Arthur Wollmann, André Schroder Buss, João Paulo Assis Gobo and Salman Shooshtarian
Climate 2022, 10(12), 197; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli10120197 - 10 Dec 2022
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Abstract
For this study on urban climatology, the study area is the city of Balneário Camboriú, belonging to the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina (SC), located at 26°59′42″ south latitude and 48°37′46″ west longitude. As it is the most vertical city in the entire [...] Read more.
For this study on urban climatology, the study area is the city of Balneário Camboriú, belonging to the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina (SC), located at 26°59′42″ south latitude and 48°37′46″ west longitude. As it is the most vertical city in the entire Southern Hemisphere, Balneário Camboriú was selected as the study area for the development of this climate analysis. Then, this study was concerned with analyzing the formation of urban heat islands throughout the daytime and nighttime in the city of Balneário Camboriú, Santa Catarina, Brazil, on some days in October 2020, from the perspective of the local climatic zones. Seven fixed sampling points and one official weather station were selected for this research. These points were selected in order to facilitate analysis of the climatic behaviour of the urban area throughout the day, comparing it with the other points, and also to verify possible changes in the local climate in the most diverse types of LCZ. At these same points, the Sky View Factor (SVF) measurements were taken. to elaborate the map of LCZ of Balneário Camboriú, the WUDAPT method was used. There was a great variation of the SVF between the collection points, and different LCZs were mapped, which contributed to the formation of urban heat islands whose maximum magnitude was 10.8 °C and islands with freshnesses of magnitudes of −4.5 °C. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microclimate Variations and Urban Heat Island)
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24 pages, 6290 KiB  
Article
Comparative Analysis and Mitigation Strategy for the Urban Heat Island Intensity in Bari (Italy) and in Other Six European Cities
by Valentino Sangiorgio, Silvana Bruno and Francesco Fiorito
Climate 2022, 10(11), 177; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli10110177 - 17 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2523
Abstract
The presence of higher air temperatures in the city in comparison with the surrounding rural areas is an alarming phenomenon named the urban heat island (UHI). In the last decade, the scientific community demonstrated the severity of the phenomenon amplified by the combination [...] Read more.
The presence of higher air temperatures in the city in comparison with the surrounding rural areas is an alarming phenomenon named the urban heat island (UHI). In the last decade, the scientific community demonstrated the severity of the phenomenon amplified by the combination of heat waves. In southern Italy, the UHI is becoming increasingly serious due to the presence of a warming climate, extensive urbanization and an aging population. In order to extensively investigate such phenomenon in several cities, recent research calibrated quantitative indexes to forecast the maximum UHI intensity in urban districts by exploiting multicriteria approaches and open-source data. This paper proposes different mitigation strategy to mitigate the Urban Heat Island Intensity in Bari. Firstly, the research evaluates the absolute max UHI intensity of the 17 urban districts of Bari (a city in southern Italy, Puglia) by exploiting the recent index-based approach IUHII. Secondly, a comparative evaluation of seven European cities (Bari, Alicante, Madrid, Paris, Berlin, Milan and London) is achieved to point out the positives and negative aspects of the different urban districts. In total, the comparison required the analysis of 344 districts of 7 European cities: 17 districts in Bari (Italia); 9 districts in Alicante (Spain); 21 in Madrid (Spain); 80 in Paris (France); 96 in Berlin (Germany); 88 in Milan (Italy) and 33 in London (UK). Finally, the results emphasize some virtuous examples of UHII mitigation in the major European cities useful to draw inspiration for effective mitigation strategies suitable for the urban context of Bari. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microclimate Variations and Urban Heat Island)
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27 pages, 2848 KiB  
Article
Downscaled Climate Change Projections in Urban Centers of Southwest Ethiopia Using CORDEX Africa Simulations
by Tesfaye Dessu Geleta, Diriba Korecha Dadi, Chris Funk, Weyessa Garedew, Damilola Eyelade and Adefires Worku
Climate 2022, 10(10), 158; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli10100158 - 21 Oct 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2566
Abstract
Projections of future climate change trends in four urban centers of southwest Ethiopia were examined under a high Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP8.5) scenario for near- (2030), mid- (2050), and long-term (2080) periods based on high-resolution (0.220) Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment [...] Read more.
Projections of future climate change trends in four urban centers of southwest Ethiopia were examined under a high Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP8.5) scenario for near- (2030), mid- (2050), and long-term (2080) periods based on high-resolution (0.220) Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) for Africa data. The multi-model ensemble projects annual maximum and minimum temperatures increasing by 0.047 °C per year (R2 > 0.3) and 0.038 °C per year (R2 > 0.7), respectively, with the rates increased by a factor of 10 for decadal projections between the 2030s and 2080s. The monthly maximum temperature increase is projected to be 1.41 °C and 2.82 °C by 2050 and 2080, respectively. In contrast, the monthly minimum temperature increase is projected to reach +3.2 °C in 2080. The overall seasonal multi-model ensemble average shows an increment in maximum temperature by +1.1 °C and +1.9 °C in 2050 and 2080, with the highest change in the winter, followed by spring, summer, and autumn. Similarly, the future minimum temperature is projected to increase across all seasons by 2080, with increases ranging from 0.4 °C (2030s) to 3.2 °C (2080s). All models consistently project increasing trends in maximum and minimum temperatures, while the majority of the models projected declining future precipitation compared to the base period of 1971–2005. A two-tailed T-test (alpha = 0.05) shows a significant change in future temperature patterns, but no significant changes in precipitation were identified. Changes in daily temperature extremes were found in spring, summer, and autumn, with the largest increases in extreme heat in winter. Therefore, our results support proactive urban planning that considers suitable adaptation and mitigation strategies against increasing air temperatures in urban centers in southwest Ethiopia. Future work will examine the likely changes in temperature and precipitation extremes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microclimate Variations and Urban Heat Island)
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