scholarly journals Relations Between Urban Subsoil and Climate Change in Different Neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuela Lopes de Oliveira ◽  
Mara Telles Salles

Abstract Most cities have grown in a disorderly manner without planning or concern for the environment while urban infrastructure networks were emerging and being implemented. Furthermore, it is known that impacts on the environment such as increasing the soil-sealing rate favor increases in temperature and the formation of heat islands leading to climate change. Therefore, the study objective was to analyze the impacts of disorderly occupation of the urban subsoil by underground infrastructure networks on permeable areas and their relationship with climate change. The methodology was based on bibliographic research and a field survey. It was found that the greater the disorderly occupation of the urban subsoil, the smaller the areas destined as green and permeable areas and the greater the vulnerability to climate change.

Author(s):  
Lidiane de Oliveira Lemos ◽  
Antonio Carlos Oscar-Júnior ◽  
Francisco Mendonça

This study aims to evaluate the land surface temperature (LST) and the thermal characteristics of the Urban Canopy Layer (UCL) of the urban canyon in Avenida Rio Branco in the Central Business District (CBD) of Rio de Janeiro during summer. In order to conduct this evaluation, two methods were employed: 1) TIRS Landsat-8 sensor for data selection and processing (latest generation, 2011-2020); ; 2) field survey using nine sampling points — seven along two mobile transects, one fixed point, and one vertical measurement point, which required the use of a RPA (Remotely Piloted Aircraft). Three categories of analysis were established for the field survey based on the prevailing synoptic situations: stability, instability, and post-instability. The CBD is characterized by extensive areas with surface heat islands, in which temperatures were higher than 38.9°C; the areas with milder LSTs were Campo do Santana, Avenida Rio Branco, and one of the Mixed-Use Zones (Praça Mauá). With respect to Rio Branco Avenue, the LST niches of lowest elevation were derived through building shadowing; however, the orbital data diverged from the observation data of the ten field-study days. In situ data revealed that the characteristics urban morphology of Avenida Rio Branco is susceptible to the formation of heat islands, presenting heat islands of very strong magnitude (over 6.1°C) in atmospheric stability, strong magnitude (4.1-6.0°C) in atmospheric instability, and moderate magnitude (2.1°C-4.0°C) in post-atmospheric instability. Despite the synoptic situation, thermal cores were concentrated at 1 pm. The intersection between Avenida Rio Branco, Rua do Ouvidor, and Praça Mauá stored most of the solar energy received during the day due to the greater sky obstruction caused by the verticalization. Finally, vertical analysis demonstrated the formation of a thermal inversion on the night of the highest mean air temperature (29.5°C), probably, due to the roughness and number of buildings in the urban canyon.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Lidiane de Oliveira Lemos ◽  
Antonio Carlos Oscar Júnior ◽  
Francisco Mendonça

This study aims to evaluate the thermal field of the central business district (CBD) of Rio de Janeiro during summer from land surface temperature (LST) and the thermal characteristics of the urban canopy layer (UCL) of the urban canyon in Avenida Rio Branco. In order to conduct this evaluation, two methods were employed: (1) TIRS Landsat-8 sensor for data selection and processing (latest generation, 2011–2020); (2) a field survey using nine sampling points—seven along two mobile transects, one fixed point, and one vertical measurement point, which required the use of an RPA (remotely piloted aircraft). Three categories of analysis were established for the field survey based on the prevailing synoptic situations: stability, instability, and post-instability. The CBD is characterized by extensive areas with surface heat islands, in which temperatures were higher than 38.9 °C; the areas with milder LSTs were Campo do Santana, Avenida Rio Branco, and one of the mixed-use zones (Praça Mauá). With respect to Rio Branco Avenue, the LST niches of lowest elevation were derived through building shadowing; however, due to the nature of the data, the orbital data diverged from the observation data of the 10 field-study days. In situ data revealed that the characteristics urban morphology of Avenida Rio Branco, by contrast with the LST result, is susceptible to the formation of atmospheric heat islands, presenting heat islands of very strong magnitude (over 6.1 °C) in atmospheric stability, strong magnitude (4.1–6.0 °C) in atmospheric instability, and moderate magnitude (2.1–4.0 °C) in post-atmospheric instability. Despite the synoptic situation, thermal cores were concentrated at 1 p.m. The intersection between Avenida Rio Branco, Rua do Ouvidor, and Praça Mauá stored most of the solar energy received during the day due to the greater sky obstruction caused by the verticalization. Finally, vertical analysis demonstrated the formation of a thermal inversion on the night of the highest mean air temperature (29.5 °C), probably due to the roughness and number of buildings in the urban canyon.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine Rice ◽  
Tim Bardsley ◽  
Pete Gomben ◽  
Dustin Bambrough ◽  
Stacey Weems ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Lauren Honig ◽  
Amy Erica Smith ◽  
Jaimie Bleck

Addressing climate change requires coordinated policy responses that incorporate the needs of the most impacted populations. Yet even communities that are greatly concerned about climate change may remain on the sidelines. We examine what stymies some citizens’ mobilization in Kenya, a country with a long history of environmental activism and high vulnerability to climate change. We foreground efficacy—a belief that one’s actions can create change—as a critical link transforming concern into action. However, that link is often missing for marginalized ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious groups. Analyzing interviews, focus groups, and survey data, we find that Muslims express much lower efficacy to address climate change than other religious groups; the gap cannot be explained by differences in science beliefs, issue concern, ethnicity, or demographics. Instead, we attribute it to understandings of marginalization vis-à-vis the Kenyan state—understandings socialized within the local institutions of Muslim communities affected by state repression.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Laspiur ◽  
J. C. Santos ◽  
S. M. Medina ◽  
J. E. Pizarro ◽  
E. A. Sanabria ◽  
...  

AbstractGiven the rapid loss of biodiversity as consequence of climate change, greater knowledge of ecophysiological and natural history traits are crucial to determine which environmental factors induce stress and drive the decline of threatened species. Liolaemus montanezi (Liolaemidae), a xeric-adapted lizard occurring only in a small geographic range in west-central Argentina, constitutes an excellent model for studies on the threats of climate change on such microendemic species. We describe field data on activity patterns, use of microhabitat, behavioral thermoregulation, and physiology to produce species distribution models (SDMs) based on climate and ecophysiological data. Liolaemus montanezi inhabits a thermally harsh environment which remarkably impacts their activity and thermoregulation. The species shows a daily bimodal pattern of activity and mostly occupies shaded microenvironments. Although the individuals thermoregulate at body temperatures below their thermal preference they avoid high-temperature microenvironments probably to avoid overheating. The population currently persists because of the important role of the habitat physiognomy and not because of niche tracking, seemingly prevented by major rivers that form boundaries of their geographic range. We found evidence of habitat opportunities in the current range and adjacent areas that will likely remain suitable to the year 2070, reinforcing the relevance of the river floodplain for the species’ avoidance of extinction.


2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-148
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Ellis ◽  
Sally Eaton

AbstractThere is growing evidence that species and communities are responding to, and will continue to be affected by, climate change. For species at risk, vulnerability can be reduced by ensuring that their habitat is extensive, connected and provides opportunities for dispersal and/or gene flow, facilitating a biological response through migration or adaptation. For woodland epiphytes, vulnerability might also be reduced by ensuring sufficient habitat heterogeneity, so that microhabitats provide suitable local microclimates, even as the larger scale climate continues to change (i.e. microrefugia). This study used fuzzy set ordination to compare bryophyte and lichen epiphyte community composition to a large-scale gradient from an oceanic to a relatively more continental macroclimate. The residuals from this relationship identified microhabitats in which species composition reflected a climate that was more oceanic or more continental than would be expected given the prevailing macroclimate. Comparing these residuals to features that operate at different scales to create the microclimate (landscape, stand and tree-scale), it was possible to identify how one might engineer microrefugia into existing or new woodland, in order to reduce epiphyte vulnerability to climate change. Multimodel inference was used to identify the most important features for consideration, which included local effects such as height on the bole, angle of bole lean and bark water holding capacity, as well as tree species and tree age, and within the landscape, topographic wetness and physical exposure.


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