scholarly journals GIS-based delineation of local climate zones: The case of medium-sized Central European cities

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 2-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Geletič ◽  
Michal Lehnert
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Mapping Method ◽  
Rural Settlements ◽  
Climate Zones ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Central European ◽  
European Cities ◽  
Local Climate Zones

Abstract Stewart and Oke (2012) recently proposed the concept of Local Climate Zones (LCZ) to describe the siting of urban meteorological stations and to improve the presentation of results amongst researchers. There is now a concerted effort, however, within the field of urban climate studies to map the LCZs across entire cities, providing a means to compare the internal structure of urban areas in a standardised way and to enable the comparison of cities. We designed a new GIS-based LCZ mapping method for Central European cities and compiled LCZ maps for three selected medium-sized Central European cities: Brno, Hradec Králové, and Olomouc (Czech Republic). The method is based on measurable physical properties and a clearly defined decision-making algorithm. Our analysis shows that the decision-making algorithm for defining the percentage coverage for individual LCZs showed good agreement (in 79–89% of cases) with areas defined on the basis of expert knowledge. When the distribution of LCZs on the basis of our method and the method of Bechtel and Daneke (2012) was compared, the results were broadly similar; however, considerable differences occurred for LCZs 3, 5, 10, D, and E. It seems that Central European cities show a typical spatial pattern of LCZ distribution but that rural settlements in the region also regularly form areas of built-type LCZ classes. The delineation and description of the spatial distribution of LCZs is an important step towards the study of urban climates in a regional setting.

scholarly journals Dynamic Changes of Local Climate Zones in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area and Their Spatio-Temporal Impacts on the Surface Urban Heat Island Effect between 2005 and 2015

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6374
Author(s):  
Yang Lu ◽  
Jiansi Yang ◽  
Song Ma
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Morphological Changes ◽  
Mapping Method ◽  
Heat Radiation ◽  
Climate Zones ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Bay Area ◽  
Local Climate Zones ◽  
Urban Heat

Local climate zones (LCZs) emphasize the influence of representative geometric properties and surface cover characteristics on the local climate. In this paper, we propose a multi-temporal LCZ mapping method, which was used to obtain LCZ maps for 2005 and 2015 in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), and we analyze the effects of LCZ changes in the GBA on land surface temperature (LST) changes. The results reveal that: (1) The accuracy of the LCZ mapping of the GBA for 2005 and 2015 is 85.03% and 85.28%, respectively. (2) The built type category showing the largest increase in area from 2005 to 2015 is LCZ8 (large low-rise), with a 1.01% increase. The changes of the LCZs also vary among the cities due to the different factors, such as the economic development level and local policies. (3) The area showing a warming trend is larger than the area showing a cooling trend in all the cities in the GBA study area. The main reasons for the warming are the increase of built types, the enhancement of human activities, and the heat radiation from surrounding high-temperature areas. (4) The spatial morphology changes of the built type categories are positively correlated with the LST changes, and the morphological changes of the LCZ4 (open high-rise) and LCZ5 (open midrise) built types exert the most significant influence. These findings will provide important insights for urban heat mitigation via rational landscape design in urban planning management.

Mapping the local climate zones of urban areas by GIS-based and WUDAPT methods: A case study of Hong Kong

Urban Climate ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 567-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ran Wang ◽  
Chao Ren ◽  
Yong Xu ◽  
Kevin Ka-Lun Lau ◽  
Yuan Shi
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Climate Zones ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Local Climate Zones

scholarly journals Mapping Local Climate Zones and Their Applications in European Urban Environments: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Development Trends

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 260
Author(s):  
Michal Lehnert ◽  
Stevan Savić ◽  
Dragan Milošević ◽  
Jelena Dunjić ◽  
Jan Geletič
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Outdoor Thermal Comfort ◽  
Climate Zones ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Local Climate Zones ◽  
Scale Modelling

In the light of climate change and burgeoning urbanization, heat loads in urban areas have emerged as serious issues, affecting the well-being of the population and the environment. In response to a pressing need for more standardised and communicable research into urban climate, the concept of local climate zones (LCZs) has been created. This concept aims to define the morphological types of (urban) surface with respect to the formation of local climatic conditions, largely thermal. This systematic review paper analyses studies that have applied the concept of LCZs to European urban areas. The methodology utilized pre-determined keywords and five steps of literature selection. A total of 91 studies were found eligible for analysis. The results show that the concept of LCZs has been increasingly employed and become well established in European urban climate research. Dozens of measurements, satellite observations, and modelling outcomes have demonstrated the characteristic thermal responses of LCZs in European cities. However, a substantial number of the studies have concentrated on the methodological development of the classification process, generating a degree of inconsistency in the delineation of LCZs. Recent trends indicate an increasing prevalence of the accessible remote-sensing based approach over accurate GIS-based methods in the delineation of LCZs. In this context, applications of the concept in fine-scale modelling appear limited. Nevertheless, the concept of the LCZ has proven appropriate and valuable to the provision of metadata for urban stations, (surface) urban heat island analysis, and the assessment of outdoor thermal comfort and heat risk. Any further development of LCZ mapping appears to require a standardised objective approach that may be globally applicable.

Human thermal comfort in Local climate zones of Berlin

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ines Langer ◽  
Alexander Pasternack ◽  
Uwe Ulbrich
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Comfort ◽  
Urban Heat Island ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Heat Island ◽  
Climate Zones ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Human Thermal Comfort ◽  
Local Climate Zones ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
The City

<p>Urban areas show higher nocturnal temperature comparing to rural areas, which is denoted by urban heat island. This effect can intensify the impact of global warming in urban areas especially during heat waves, that leads to higher energy demand for cooling the building and higher thermal stress for residents.  </p><p>The aim of this study is to identify the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect during the heat spell 2018 and 2019 in order to calculated human thermal comfort for Berlin. Berlin, the capital city of Germany covers an area of 892km<sup>2</sup> and its population is growing, therefore more residential areas will be planned in future through higher building. The methodology of this research is to divide Berlin into Local Climate Zones (LCZ's) regarding the concept of Stewart & Oke (2012). Then to evaluate the accuracy of this concept using 30 microclimate stations. Estimating the magnitude of urban heat island and its seasonal changes in combination with human thermal perception in different LCZ during summer time is another objective of this research. </p><p>Ten LCZ's for Berlin were selected, as class 1 (compact high rise), class 3 (compact low rise), class 7 (lightweight low-rise), class C (bush, scrub), class E (bare rock or paved) and class F (bare soil or sand) don't exist in Berlin. Class A (dense trees) is with a fraction of 18.6% in a good agreement with the percentage of dense trees reported from the city administration of Berlin (18.4%), class G (water) has a coverage of 5.1% through our classification instead of 6.7% reported by the city administration. In summary, the LCZ 1-10 cover 59.3% (more than half) of the city area.</p><p>Regarding temperature measurements, which represent a hot summer day with calm wind and clear sky the difference of Local Climate Zones will be calculated and the temperature variability in every LCZ's regarding sky view factor values show the hot spot of the city.</p><p>The vulnerability of LCZ's to heat stress will be ranked and discussed regarding ventilation and other factors.</p><p> </p><p>Literature</p><p>Matzarakis, A. Mayer, H., Iziomon, M. (1999) Applications of a universal thermal index: Physiological equivalent temperature: Intern. J. of Biomet 43 (2), 76-84.</p><p>Stewart, I.D., Oke, T.R. (2012) Local climate zones for urban temperature studies. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. 93 1879-1900. DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00019.1.</p><p> </p>

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