scholarly journals Assessing Urban Landscape Variables’ Contributions to Microclimates

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tammy E. Parece ◽  
Jie Li ◽  
James B. Campbell ◽  
David Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Landscape Variables ◽  
Rural Landscapes ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Spatial Dimensions ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
Mean Square Errors

The well-known urban heat island (UHI) effect recognizes prevailing patterns of warmer urban temperatures relative to surrounding rural landscapes. Although UHIs are often visualized as single features, internal variations within urban landscapes create distinctive microclimates. Evaluating intraurban microclimate variability presents an opportunity to assess spatial dimensions of urban environments and identify locations that heat or cool faster than other locales. Our study employs mobile weather units and fixed weather stations to collect air temperatures across Roanoke, Virginia, USA, on selected dates over a two-year interval. Using this temperature data, together with six landscape variables, we interpolated (using Kriging and Random Forest) air temperatures across the city for each collection period. Our results estimated temperatures with small mean square errors (ranging from 0.03 to 0.14); landscape metrics explained between 60 and 91% of temperature variations (higher when the previous day’s average temperatures were included as a variable). For all days, similar spatial patterns appeared for cooler and warmer areas in mornings, with distinctive patterns as landscapes warmed during the day and over successive days. Our results revealed that the most potent landscape variables vary according to season and time of day. Our analysis contributes new dimensions and new levels of spatial and temporal detail to urban microclimate research.

Using localised weather files to assess overheating in naturally ventilated offices within London's urban heat island

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Demanuele ◽  
A Mavrogianni ◽  
M Davies ◽  
M Kolokotroni ◽  
I Rajapaksha
Keyword(s):  
Urban Heat Island ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Heat Island ◽  
Urban Buildings ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
The Impact

Urban environments typically experience increased average air temperatures compared to surrounding rural areas – a phenomenon referred to as the Urban Heat Island (UHI). The impact of the UHI on comfort in naturally ventilated buildings is the main focus of this article. The overheating risk in urban buildings is likely to be exacerbated in the future as a result of the combined effect of the UHI and climate change. In the design of such buildings in London, the usual current practice is to view the use of one generic weather file as being adequate to represent external temperatures. However, the work reported here demonstrates that there is a considerable difference between the overheating performance of a standard building at different sites within London. This implies, for example, that a building may wrongly pass or fail criteria used to demonstrate compliance with building regulations as a result of an inappropriate generic weather file being used. The work thus has important policy implications. Practical application: The Greater London Authority has recently developed, with the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers, guidance for developers to address the risk of overheating in buildings via the provision of weather files for London relating to three zones. While such an initiative is welcomed, it may be that a weather file tailored to the building location would be preferable. Of course, this would add further complexity to the process and a view would have to be taken as the viability of such an approach. The work presented in this article, however, suggests that serious consideration should be given to the use of tailored weather data for regulatory purposes.

scholarly journals Designing Resilient Cities that Work for Women, Too

2020 ◽  
pp. 169-187
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Disaster Resilience ◽  
Negative Outcomes

Abstract Urban landscapes can—and do—influence multiple aspects of our lives, including our overall quality of life and disaster resilience. Research has confirmed that some populations experience negative outcomes in disasters at least partially attributed to poorly designed urban environments; and women's and girls’ resilience in particular can be impacted by their experience of the urban landscape. In response, urban designers have an opportunity and an obligation to incorporate gender-sensitive design approaches in all of their projects to ensure the whole community has access to the benefits of urban landscapes. This chapter examines current evidence and strategies for successful urban design that supports resilience in women and the cities they occupy.

Urban landscapes and public health

2018 ◽  
pp. 240-246
Author(s):  
Timothy Beatley ◽  
Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Community Gardening ◽  
Health Concerns ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
Green Urbanism ◽  
Health Promoting ◽  
Therapeutic Settings

Increasing urbanization patterns have resulted in significant and serious environmental health concerns (e.g. caused by a lack of physical activity). Urban planners face the challenge of developing healthy, resilient, and sustainable urban environments. This chapter addresses this challenge from an urban landscape perspective, promoting a socioecological approach, and recognizing that landscapes are shaped in close interaction between nature and culture—with cities being an ultimate example of human shaping and impact. It provides examples of how urban landscapes have contributed to better public health, from urban agriculture and community gardening, to therapeutic settings and urban wildscapes. Landscape-related approaches such as green urbanism, urban resiliency, and biophilic urbanism are introduced and examples are offered of how cities have worked with these. Suggestions are provided for the planning and development of health-promoting urban landscapes.

Packaging Environmental Sensors for an Internet-of-Things Solution for Urban-Microclimate Studies

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuv Dey ◽  
Yogendra Joshi ◽  
J. Michael Brown
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Heat Island ◽  
Environmental Sensors ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Urban Heat

Abstract Cities are experiencing a number of negative effects caused by increasing urbanization. For decades, the effects of pollution have been recognized and studied and steps have been taken attempting to control this problem. Many urban environments are also experiencing the effect of the Urban Heat Island (UHI). UHIs are metropolitan areas that have measurably warmer average air temperatures during several periods during the year, than their surrounding rural areas. There is a great interest in studying UHI and pollution and its effects on the environment as well as urban residents. However, in order to study these phenomena, we need more information than we currently have. Thus, an IoT based low cost sensor network can be used to collect the data necessary to study UHI and pollution. There are several key challenges associated with an IoT based solution to environmental data monitoring. This study explores these challenges by looking at what effect the packaging has on the deployed environmental sensors, and how and where to deploy sensor modules. Sensor data collected over a few months’ timeframe are analyzed and presented.

scholarly journals Propositions for the Aesthetic Continuity of Urban Landscapes

SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402094185
Author(s):  
Hyejung Chang
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Spiritual Experience ◽  
Shared Environment ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Irreversible Loss ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Ethical Significance

While many global societies have undergone radical transformations, places have suffered from the irreversible loss of public memory. The value of continuity in the urban landscape has gradually declined due to the culture of “avant-gardism.” This article explores the enduring values necessary for human cohabitation and aesthetic qualities inherent in the rapidly changing urban environments of today. It draws attention to the ethical significance of continuity as the whole notion of “place” hinges, and argues that the experience of urban continuity in everyday life is an intrinsic and instrumental factor for our sense of identity, well-being, and belonging. Continuity, as predicated on human existence, is essential for the evolutionary, ecological, cognitive, cultural, and spiritual experience of the shared environment. The proposed dimensions of an aesthetic continuity are intended to provide a normative and pragmatic framework useful for application to placemaking in ever-changing urban environments.

scholarly journals Defining and Managing the Historic Urban Landscape: Reflections on the English Experience and Some Stories from Liverpool

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Sykes ◽  
Carol Ludwig
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
City Development ◽  
Urban Heritage ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Development Perspective ◽  
Static Concept

The period since the 1960s has been characterised by growing societal concern with urban heritage protection and the development of legislative, fiscal and urban planning instruments that seek to ensure the protection and enhancement of historic buildings and environments. International organisations such as UNESCO and European level documents such as the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) have stressed the cultural and economic value of the ‘wise management of natural and cultural heritage’. Since the 1970s many cities have sought to redefine and regenerate themselves through a revalorisation of their past and the protection and enhancement of their historic urban landscapes. Urban heritage has thus often come to be seen as a component of the territorial capital of places, and often had a symbiotic relationship with the objective of urban regeneration. However, urban heritage is not a static concept and ideas about what constitutes heritage, the value of different historic urban environments, and the contribution they can make to city development and regeneration continue to evolve. This paper reflects on this evolution in the context of the English planning system and illustrates some key trends and issues surrounding urban heritage through a consideration of recent and ongoing heritage related planning episodes in the northern English city of Liverpool.

scholarly journals U.K. Climate Projections: Summer Daytime and Nighttime Urban Heat Island Changes in England’s Major Cities

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (20) ◽  
pp. 9015-9030
Author(s):  
Y. T. Eunice Lo ◽  
Daniel M. Mitchell ◽  
Sylvia I. Bohnenstengel ◽  
Mat Collins ◽  
Ed Hawkins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Urban Heat Islands ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Summer Temperatures ◽  
Urban Heat

AbstractIn the United Kingdom, where 90% of residents are projected to live in urban areas by 2050, projecting changes in urban heat islands (UHIs) is essential to municipal adaptation. Increased summer temperatures are linked to increased mortality. Using the new regional U.K. Climate Projections, UKCP18-regional, we estimate the 1981–2079 trends in summer urban and rural near-surface air temperatures and in UHI intensities during day and at night in the 10 most populous built-up areas in England. Summer temperatures increase by 0.45°–0.81°C per decade under RCP8.5, depending on the time of day and location. Nighttime temperatures increase more in urban than rural areas, enhancing the nighttime UHI by 0.01°–0.05°C per decade in all cities. When these upward UHI signals emerge from 2008–18 variability, positive summer nighttime UHI intensities of up to 1.8°C are projected in most cities. However, we can prevent most of these upward nighttime UHI signals from emerging by stabilizing climate to the Paris Agreement target of 2°C above preindustrial levels. In contrast, daytime UHI intensities decrease in nine cities, at rates between −0.004° and −0.05°C per decade, indicating a trend toward a reduced daytime UHI effect. These changes reflect different feedbacks over urban and rural areas and are specific to UKCP18-regional. Future research is important to better understand the drivers of these UHI intensity changes.

scholarly journals Phenotypic selection on floral traits in an urban landscape

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1884) ◽  
pp. 20181239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca E. Irwin ◽  
Paige S. Warren ◽  
Lynn S. Adler
Keyword(s):  
Display Size ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Phenotypic Selection ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Floral Display ◽  
Floral Display Size ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Urban Sites

Native species are increasingly living in urban landscapes associated with abiotic and biotic changes that may influence patterns of phenotypic selection. However, measures of selection in urban and non-urban environments, and exploration of the mechanisms associated with such changes, are uncommon. Plant–animal interactions have played a central role in the evolution of flowering plants and are sensitive to changes in the urban landscape, and thus provide opportunities to explore how urban environments modify selection. We evaluated patterns of phenotypic selection on the floral and resistance traits of Gelsemium sempervirens in urban and non-urban sites. The urban landscape had increased florivory and decreased pollen receipt, but showed only modest differences in patterns of selection. Directional selection for one trait, larger floral display size, was stronger in urban compared to non-urban sites. Neither quadratic nor correlational selection significantly differed between urban and non-urban sites. Pollination was associated with selection for larger floral display size in urban compared to non-urban sites, due to the differences in the translation of pollination into seeds rather than pollinator selectivity. Thus, our data suggest that urban landscapes may not result in sweeping differences in phenotypic selection but rather modest differences for some traits, potentially mediated by species interactions.

scholarly journals Towards Psychosocial Well-Being in Historic Urban Landscapes: The Contribution of Cultural Memory

Urban Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Fatmaelzahraa Hussein ◽  
John Stephens ◽  
Reena Tiwari
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Heritage Conservation ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Mind's Eye

A crucial element in the human search for well-being is achieving a sense of identity within, and belonging to, the landscape in which we live. Landscape should be understood as not only the visible environment but the affective values we attach to it and how we shape it in our mind’s eye. These inner reflections of our landscapes constitute one of our richest archives, in particular, in terms of creating and passing down to future generations our cultural memories. The current paper is a review of literature on the concepts of urban heritage conservation, and, in particular, the development of the historic urban landscape (HUL) approach, with reference to the role and contribution of cultural memory and its presence in the urban landscape. We also investigate how the notions of place attachment and identity interrelate with cultural memory to elucidate how such interrelations can contribute to human psychosocial well-being and quality of life (QOL). This review points to the neglected role of cultural memory in the maintenance of psychosocial well-being in HULs, a topic which requires further research to deepen our understanding about its importance in urban environments.

scholarly journals Valuing Urban Heritage Through Participatory Heritage Websites: Citizen Perceptions of Historic Urban Landscapes

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arno van der Hoeven
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Social Relevance ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
Urban Heritage ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Citizen Perceptions

This study examines how people value their historic urban landscapes through participatory heritage websites. These websites are online places where citizens actively contribute to the conservation of urban heritage. Taking UNESCO’s 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape as its theoretical starting point, this study understands urban landscapes as (1) dynamic, because they change over time; (2) multilayered, as different generations and communities contribute in diverse ways to the development of urban landscapes; and (3) mediated through digital technologies such as participatory heritage websites. Furthermore, this UNESCO recommendation is used to make a distinction between the kinds of heritage discussed on the websites (attributes) and the significance attached to it (values). Through a qualitative content analysis of 20 participatory heritage websites from various Dutch and English cities, the study examines what is valued by those who contribute in their urban environments. In so doing, the study demonstrates how online media can support a people-oriented form of urban heritage conservation. This analysis reveals that the following five categories of heritage attribute are remembered by citizens: (1) the built environment and public space, (2) the social fabric and identity, (3) culture and leisure, (4) business and industry, and (5) politics and public order. Moreover, it is found that these attributes are valued because of their social relevance (social value), their connection to the biographies of citizens (experiential value), and their contribution to our understanding of the urban past (historical value).

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