scholarly journals Local Climate Zones for Urban Temperature Studies

2012 ◽  
Vol 93 (12) ◽  
pp. 1879-1900 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. D. Stewart ◽  
T. R. Oke
Keyword(s):  
Surface Characterization ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Urban Heat Islands ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Heat Islands ◽  
Local Climate Zones ◽  
Thermal Climate ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Urban Heat

The effect of urban development on local thermal climate is widely documented in scientific literature. Observations of urban–rural air temperature differences—or urban heat islands (UHIs)—have been reported for cities and regions worldwide, often with local field sites that are extremely diverse in their physical and climatological characteristics. These sites are usually described only as “urban” or “rural,” leaving much uncertainty about the actual exposure and land cover of the sites. To address the inadequacies of urban–rural description, the “local climate zone” (LCZ) classification system has been developed. The LCZ system comprises 17 zone types at the local scale (102 to 104 m). Each type is unique in its combination of surface structure, cover, and human activity. Classification of sites into appropriate LCZs requires basic metadata and surface characterization. The zone definitions provide a standard framework for reporting and comparing field sites and their temperature observations. The LCZ system is designed primarily for urban heat island researchers, but it has derivative uses for city planners, landscape ecologists, and global climate change investigators.

scholarly journals Inclusion of vegetation in the Town Energy Balance model for modeling urban green areas

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1295-1340 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lemonsu ◽  
V. Masson ◽  
L. Shashua-Bar ◽  
E. Erell ◽  
D. Pearlmutter
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Urban Canopy ◽  
Bare Soil ◽  
Urban Heat Islands ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Heat Islands ◽  
Planning Strategy ◽  
Urban Heat

Abstract. Cities impact both local climate, through urban heat islands, and global climate, because they are an area of heavy greenhouse gas release into the atmosphere due to heating, air conditioning and traffic. Including more vegetation into cities is a planning strategy having possible positive impacts for both concerns. Improving vegetation representation into urban models will allow to address more accurately these questions. This paper presents an improvement of the TEB urban canopy model. Vegetation is directly included inside the canyon, allowing shadowing of grass by buildings, better representation of urban canopy form, and, a priori, a more accurate simulation of canyon air microclimate. The development is performed so that any vegetation model can be used to represent the vegetation part. Here the ISBA model is used. The model results are compared to microclimatic and evaporation measurements performed in small courtyards in a very arid region of Israel. Two experimental landscaping strategies – bare soil or irrigated grass in the courtyard – are observed and simulated. The new version of the model with integrated vegetation performs better than if vegetation is treated outside the canyon. Surface temperatures are closer to the observations, especially at night when radiative trapping is important. The integrated vegetation version simulates a more humid air inside the canyon. The microclimatic quantities are better simulated with this new version. This opens opportunities to study with better accuracy the urban microclimate, down to the micro (or canyon) scale.

Use of Local Climate Zones to investigate surface urban heat islands in Texas

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (8) ◽  
pp. 1083-1101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunhong Zhao ◽  
Jennifer L. R. Jensen ◽  
Qihao Weng ◽  
Nathan Currit ◽  
Russell Weaver
Keyword(s):  
Urban Heat Islands ◽  
Climate Zones ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Heat Islands ◽  
Local Climate Zones ◽  
Urban Heat

scholarly journals Using “Local Climate Zones” to Detect Urban Heat Island on Two Small Cities in Alabama

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (16) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Chieppa ◽  
Austin Bush ◽  
Chandana Mitra
Keyword(s):  
Classification System ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Urban Heat Islands ◽  
Small Cities ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Heat Islands ◽  
Hourly Temperature ◽  
Rural Environments ◽  
Local Climate Zones ◽  
Urban Heat

Abstract Classifying “urban” and “rural” environments is a challenge in understanding urban climate, specifically urban heat islands (UHIs). Stewart and Oke developed the “local climate zone” (LCZ) classification system to clarify these distinctions using 17 unique groups. This system has been applied to many areas around the world, but few studies have attempted to utilize them to detect UHI effects in smaller cities. Our aim was to use the LCZ classification system 1) to detect UHI in two small cities in Alabama and 2) to determine whether similar zones experienced similar intensity or magnitude of UHIs. For 1 week, we monitored hourly temperature in two cities, in four zones: compact low-rise, open low-rise, dense forests, and water. We found that urban zones were often warmer for overall, daytime, and nighttime temperatures relative to rural zones (from −0.1° to 2.8°C). In addition, we found that temperatures between cities in similar zones were not very similar, indicating that the LCZ system does not predict UHI intensity equally in places with similar background climates. We found that the LCZ classification system was easy to use, and we recognize its potential as a tool for urban ecologists and urban planners.

scholarly journals Advances of Local Climate Zone Mapping and Its Practice Using Object-Based Image Analysis

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1146
Author(s):  
Lei Ma ◽  
Xiaoxiang Zhu ◽  
Chunping Qiu ◽  
Thomas Blaschke ◽  
Manchun Li
Keyword(s):  
Image Analysis ◽  
Urban Heat Islands ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Heat Islands ◽  
Object Based Image Analysis ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Local Climate Zones ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
Future Object ◽  
Local Climate Zone

In the context of climate change and urban heat islands, the concept of local climate zones (LCZ) aims for consistent and comparable mapping of urban surface structure and cover across cities. This study provides a timely survey of remote sensing-based applications of LCZ mapping considering the recent increase in publications. We analyze and evaluate several aspects that affect the performance of LCZ mapping, including mapping units/scale, transferability, sample dataset, low accuracy, and classification schemes. Since current LCZ analysis and mapping are based on per-pixel approaches, this study implements an object-based image analysis (OBIA) method and tests it for two cities in Germany using Sentinel 2 data. A comparison with a per-pixel method yields promising results. This study shall serve as a blueprint for future object-based remotely sensed LCZ mapping approaches.

Evaluation of urban heat islands using local climate zones and the influence of sea-land breeze

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 102060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xilin Zhou ◽  
Tsubasa Okaze ◽  
Chao Ren ◽  
Meng Cai ◽  
Yasuyuki Ishida ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Heat Islands ◽  
Land Breeze ◽  
Climate Zones ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Heat Islands ◽  
Local Climate Zones ◽  
Urban Heat

scholarly journals Urban Heat Island: Summer Outdoor Climate Measurement Within the University Campus and City

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Juras
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate ◽  
Urban Heat Islands ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Heat Islands ◽  
Outdoor Climate ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
Weather Stations ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The University

Abstract Work of researchers from various areas is focused on problematics of urban heat islands. Its importance is rising with the global climate change. The difference of the air temperatures within the area can be also caused by the measurement error. Usual error is not the accuracy of the sensor, but the radiation shield or location of the weather station. In this case, averaged difference can be up to 80 %. Difference of temperatures between the weather stations within the analyzed area can vary from 0.2 up to 6 °C. Difference depends usual on the size of the city and the location influenced by the surrounding geomorphology. In this paper three different radiation shields are compared which influenced the measurement and analyzed are also the results from four different weather stations, two of them are within the University of Zilina campus. One of them is placed on the roof, which is a usual location for the solar radiation measurement; the second one is placed on the grass land at the end of the campus. Other two stations belong to the national weather institute. Comparison is made for two very hot days of August 2020. Averaged difference was 0.3 °C for the whole month and 0.5 °C for selected days.

scholarly journals High-Resolution Simulations of the Urban Thermal Climate in Suzhou City, China

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Yan Chen ◽  
Ning Zhang ◽  
Yan Zhu
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Urban Canopy ◽  
High Density ◽  
Urban Heat Islands ◽  
Medium Density ◽  
Heat Islands ◽  
Thermal Climate ◽  
Urban Heat

City thermal discomfort conditions have been exacerbated by the rapid urbanization processes in China. High-resolution urban thermal climate simulations can help us to understand urban climate features and produce better urban designs. In this paper, a single-layer urban canopy model (UCM) combined with Landsat satellite data and high-resolution meteorological forcing data was used to simulate very-high-resolution characteristics of temperature and humidity at the urban canopy level, and the heat index at the pedestrian level was also estimated. The research shows that the National center of environmental forecasting, Oregon state university, Air force and Hydrological research lab (NOAH)-UCM model can simulate the distribution of meteorological elements for different land uses in a fine and effective manner, making it an effective approach to obtaining the fundamental data for urban climate analysis. The spatial distribution pattern of urban heat islands in Suzhou is highly consistent with urban land cover fraction. High-density and medium-density urban areas are centers of urban heat islands, and the annual number of high-temperature days and heat indices over the high-density and medium-density urban areas are markedly higher than those in low-density cities and suburbs, indicating that urban development has a significant impact on the urban thermal environment.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document