scholarly journals The Effect of a Denser City over the Urban Microclimate: The Case of Toronto

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umberto Berardi ◽  
Yupeng Wang

In the last decades, several studies have revealed how critical the urban heat island (UHI) effect can be in cities located in cold climates, such as the Canadian one. Meanwhile, many researchers have looked at the impact of the city design over the urban microclimate, and have raised concerns about the development of too dense cities. Under the effect of the “Places to Growth” plan, the city of Toronto is experiencing one of the highest rates of building development in North America. Over 48,000 and 33,000 new home permits were issued in 2012 and 2013 respectively, and at the beginning of 2015, almost 500 high-rise proposals across the Greater Toronto Area were released. In this context, it is important to investigate how new constructions will affect the urban microclimate, and to propose strategies to mitigate possible UHI effects. Using the software ENVI-met, microclimate simulations for the Church-Yonge corridor both in the current situation and with the new constructions are reported in this paper. The outdoor air temperature and the wind speed are the parameters used to assess the outdoor microclimate changes. The results show that the new constructions could increase the wind speed around the buildings. However, high-rise buildings will somewhat reduce the air temperature during day-time, as they will create large shadow areas, with lower average mean radiant temperature.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umberto Berardi ◽  
Yupeng Wang

In the last decades, several studies have revealed how critical the urban heat island (UHI) effect can be in cities located in cold climates, such as the Canadian one. Meanwhile, many researchers have looked at the impact of the city design over the urban microclimate, and have raised concerns about the development of too dense cities. Under the effect of the “Places to Growth” plan, the city of Toronto is experiencing one of the highest rates of building development in North America. Over 48,000 and 33,000 new home permits were issued in 2012 and 2013 respectively, and at the beginning of 2015, almost 500 high-rise proposals across the Greater Toronto Area were released. In this context, it is important to investigate how new constructions will affect the urban microclimate, and to propose strategies to mitigate possible UHI effects. Using the software ENVI-met, microclimate simulations for the Church-Yonge corridor both in the current situation and with the new constructions are reported in this paper. The outdoor air temperature and the wind speed are the parameters used to assess the outdoor microclimate changes. The results show that the new constructions could increase the wind speed around the buildings. However, high-rise buildings will somewhat reduce the air temperature during day-time, as they will create large shadow areas, with lower average mean radiant temperature.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-65
Author(s):  
S.A. Kurolap ◽  
V.S. Petrosyan ◽  
O.V. Klepikov ◽  
V.V. Kulnev ◽  
D.Yu. Martynov

Based on the analysis of official statistics from the Voronezh Hydrometeorological Service, the patterns of the dynamics of pollutants (formaldehyde and soot) are investigated depending on the combination of various meteorological parameters — air temperature, wind speed, relative air humidity. A positive relationship has been established between the increase in atmospheric pollution with formaldehyde and air temperature. With increasing wind speed and relative humidity, the concentration of formaldehyde and soot in the atmosphere of the city, as a rule, decrease. The maximum permissible level of carcinogenic risk to public health has been established, causing concern. The obtained patterns can be used to predict the level of technogenic pollution of the city’s atmosphere, depending on meteorological conditions.


This research investigates the impact of rooftop vegetation on the phenomenon of urban heat island (UHI) in hot-aired microclimates with an emphasis on housing projects in the context of Baghdad city. The methodology of this research relies on ENVI-met Headquarter 4.4.5 to create models that simulate and comparatively analyze the effect of rooftop vegetation on reduction UHI within housing projects. The analysis encompassed models of low-rise, mid-rise, and high-rise buildings. The simulated climatic parameters included the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV), air temperature, mean radiant temperature (MRT), reflected short-wave radiation, and humidity. The findings of this research indicated that rooftop vegetation can participate in the reduction of UHI phenomenon in housing projects, the most significant for almost all climatic parameters results were in low-rise and mid-rise buildings as compared to high-rise buildings.


Climate ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afifa Mohammed ◽  
Gloria Pignatta ◽  
Evangelia Topriska ◽  
Mattheos Santamouris

The impact that climate change and urbanization are having on the thermal-energy balance of the built environment is a major environmental concern today. Urban heat island (UHI) is another phenomenon that can raise the temperature in cities. This study aims to examine the UHI magnitude and its association with the main meteorological parameters (i.e., temperature, wind speed, and wind direction) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Five years of hourly weather data (2014–2018) obtained from weather stations located in an urban, suburban, and rural area, were post-processed by means of a clustering technique. Six clusters characterized by different ranges of wind directions were analyzed. The analysis reveals that UHI is affected by the synoptic weather conditions (i.e., sea breeze and hot air coming from the desert) and is larger at night. In the urban area, air temperature and night-time UHI intensity, averaged on the five year period, are 1.3 °C and 3.3 °C higher with respect to the rural area, respectively, and the UHI and air temperature are independent of each other only when the wind comes from the desert. A negative and inverse correlation was found between the UHI and wind speed for all the wind directions, except for the northern wind where no correlation was observed. In the suburban area, the UHI and both temperatures and wind speed ranged between the strong and a weak negative correlation considering all the wind directions, while a strong negative correlation was observed in the rural area. This paper concludes that UHI intensity is strongly associated with local climatic parameters and to the changes in wind direction.


2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-134
Author(s):  
Maria Stopa-Boryczka ◽  
Jerzy Boryczka ◽  
Jolanta Wawer

Abstract The more important research results on the impact of building development and vegetation on the local climate, conducted in Warsaw in the years 1959–2009 by the Department of Climatology, are presented. Majority of the issues associated with determining the deformation of air temperature limits (urban heat islands), humidity and wind vector areas, because of buildings in housing estates, located in various parts of the city, were resolved in master’s thesis. Areas with high building density are characterized by slow cooling and warming pace, especially during the summer months. Spatial changes in the urban heat islands in the east-west direction well describe the latitudinal profiles (W-E) of air temperature differences (∆T ≥ 0) between the city and its urban fringe. The urban heat island ∆T does not appears till 5PM, initially in the Central City District. Spatial diversity of effective temperature and catathermal cooling allowed to mark off in housing estates („Stawki”, „Służew nad Dolinką”, „Sady Żoliborskie”) places with perceptible conditions, e.g. heat, warmth, comfort, cold.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 2573-2587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongwei Huang ◽  
Hanbo Yang ◽  
Dawen Yang

Abstract. With global climate changes intensifying, the hydrological response to climate changes has attracted more attention. It is beneficial not only for hydrology and ecology but also for water resource planning and management to understand the impact of climate change on runoff. In addition, there are large spatial variations in climate type and geographic characteristics across China. To gain a better understanding of the spatial variation of the response of runoff to changes in climatic factors and to detect the dominant climatic factors driving changes in annual runoff, we chose the climate elasticity method proposed by Yang and Yang (2011). It is shown that, in most catchments of China, increasing air temperature and relative humidity have negative impacts on runoff, while declining net radiation and wind speed have positive impacts on runoff, which slow the overall decline in runoff. The dominant climatic factors driving annual runoff are precipitation in most parts of China, net radiation mainly in some catchments of southern China, air temperature and wind speed mainly in some catchments in northern China.


Arsitektura ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Sri Yuliani ◽  
Wiwik Setyaningsih

<p class="Abstract"><em>The surface temperature of the building material may release a heat load in the micro-environment. The largest building envelope receives the heat load of solar radiation is the roof. The strategic roof position at the top of the building has the opportunity to radiate heat received into the environment. Heat emissions lead to rising temperatures, so it is necessary to lower the temperature in micro-environment. When the heat of the building is not lowered will lead to an increase in the urban heat island (UHI). The objective of the study was to find the relationship between the thermal performance of the roof of the building and the energy efficiency in the high-rise building, in order to establish efficient thermal comfort. The research method uses experimental way in real model which is in Surakarta City, as humid tropical climate area. The result of the study is a comparison of the heat performance of three roofing materials which would later recommend the criteria of energy efficient roof for high buildings.</em><em></em></p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-49
Author(s):  
Wimpie Tanojo

The ministries of Diakonia, Koinonia and Marturia are the foundation of a church, meaning that a church that is aware of its duty and calling on this earth must rely on these three ministries. It can be said that the true main duty of the church is reflected in the ministry of Diakonia, Koinonia and Marturia. Based on this main task, the church must be able to demonstrate and impart the life of Diakonia, Koinonia and Marturia with the aim of impacting and changing human life. This is what the Ressud Sudirman Surabaya Indonesian Christian Church is aware of in the context of its duties and vocation as a church that has been present in the midst of the Surabaya community, of course its presence is required to fulfill God's plan to become salt and light, a blessing for the surrounding community in general and the congregation in particular. through Diakonia, Koinonia and Marturia's ministry. This research uses a descriptive method. The author directly conducts research, both literature and field research. Bibliography that contains various theoretical data related to topic material from various sources of information which contains important statements to support the accuracy of the research. In addition, this research is also complemented by field research either through questionnaires or direct interviews with several trusted sources including congregants, church activists, servants, sympathizers so that the results of the research present a strong and accurate combination because they are supported by strong theoretical aspects but are also followed by field research evidence. The purpose of this study: first to realize how important the services of Diakonia, Koinonia and Marturia are for the growth of the Indonesian Christian Church in Ressud Surabaya in particular and to the Lord's church in general. Second, the Church is aware of her duty and calling on this earth which has been mandated by God to be her witness so that the impact is evident in church growth both in quality and quantity. Third, the Church of God has the correct concept of the impact of the ministry of Diakonia, Koinonia and Marturia on church growth from the perspective of Missiology, Theology and Ecclesiology. Based on the research conducted by the author, the results obtained are how the extraordinary impact of the services of Diakonia, Koinonia and Marturia on the growth of the Indonesian Christian Church Ressud Surabaya.   This is evidenced by the increasing number of church members from year to year and the increasing quality of the congregation's faith. By having a correct understanding of the ministry of Diakonia, Koinonia and Marturia, the congregation will be more active and diligent in carrying out the duties and responsibilities that have been mandated by God to become a blessing, to become salt and light in this world, in various forms of diaconial services such as selling rice. cheap for the congregation and partly distributed by the surrounding community, cheap medical treatment and even free for the congregation and the poor by establishing a polyclinic "Waluyojati", scholarships for underprivileged congregations ranging from elementary, junior high and even vocational levels, house renovation program held 1 a year one to two times for the congregation. In the form of Koinonia, it can be seen from the congregation that is divided into several sectors or regions, the congregation will continue to grow and increase even out of the city, namely Lamongan, Denpasar and even to Batam, the Denpasar congregation was institutionalized in 2003, while in the city of Surabaya the Indonesian Christian Church Lebak Jaya was matured in 1994 and the Kutisari area in 1998 was instituted simultaneously in 1998 the Batam Indonesian Christian Church was also institutionalized where the Batam Indonesia Christian Church is the fruit of the ministry of several Indonesian Christian Churches including the Indonesian Christian Church Ressud in it. The goal is to be a witness through this service, but the most important of this research is that the Indonesian Christian Church congregation in Ressud is a congregation that has marturia diaconiality, while the implementation of Marturia directly or verbally is not optimal, this is also acknowledged by the council is a local church based on interviews and research based on a questionnaire.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shihan Chen ◽  
Yuanjian Yang ◽  
Fei Deng ◽  
Yanhao Zhang ◽  
Duanyang Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract. Due to rapid urbanization and intense human activities, the urban heat island (UHI) effect has become a more concerning climatic and environmental issue. A high spatial resolution canopy UHI monitoring method would help better understand the urban thermal environment. Taking the city of Nanjing in China as an example, we propose a method for evaluating canopy UHI intensity (CUHII) at high resolution by using remote sensing data and machine learning with a Random Forest (RF) model. Firstly, the observed environmental parameters [e.g., surface albedo, land use/land cover, impervious surface, and anthropogenic heat flux (AHF)] around densely distributed meteorological stations were extracted from satellite images. These parameters were used as independent variables to construct an RF model for predicting air temperature. The correlation coefficient between the predicted and observed air temperature in the test set was 0.73, and the average root-mean-square error was 0.72 °C. Then, the spatial distribution of CUHII was evaluated at 30-m resolution based on the output of the RF model. We found that wind speed was negatively correlated with CUHII, and wind direction was strongly correlated with the CUHII offset direction. The CUHII reduced with the distance to the city center, due to the de-creasing proportion of built-up areas and reduced AHF in the same direction. The RF model framework developed for real-time monitoring and assessment of high-resolution CUHII provides scientific support for studying the changes and causes of CUHII, as well as the spatial pattern of urban thermal environments.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrei-Emil Briciu ◽  
Dumitru Mihăilă ◽  
Adrian Graur ◽  
Dinu Iulian Oprea ◽  
Alin Prisăcariu ◽  
...  

Cities alter the thermal regime of urban rivers in very variable ways which are not yet deciphered for the territory of Romania. The urban heat island of Suceava city was measured in 2019 and its impact on Suceava River was assessed using hourly and daily values from a network of 12 water and air monitoring stations. In 2019, Suceava River water temperature was 11.54 °C upstream of Suceava city (Mihoveni) and 11.97 °C downstream (Tişăuţi)—a 3.7% increase in the water temperature downstream. After the stream water passes through the city, the diurnal thermal profile of Suceava River water temperature shows steeper slopes and earlier moments of the maximum and minimum temperatures than upstream because of the urban heat island. In an average day, an increase of water temperature with a maximum of 0.99 °C occurred downstream, partly explained by the 2.46 °C corresponding difference between the urban floodplain and the surrounding area. The stream water diurnal cycle has been shifted towards a variation specific to that of the local air temperature. The heat exchange between Suceava River and Suceava city is bidirectional. The stream water diurnal thermal cycle is statistically more significant downstream due to the heat transfer from the city into the river. This transfer occurs partly through urban tributaries which are 1.94 °C warmer than Suceava River upstream of Suceava city. The wavelet coherence analyses and ANCOVA (analysis of covariance) prove that there are significant (0.95 confidence level) causal relationships between the changes in Suceava River water temperature downstream and the fluctuations of the urban air temperature. The complex bidirectional heat transfer and the changes in the diurnal thermal profiles are important to be analysed in other urban systems in order to decipher in more detail the observed causal relationships.


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