scholarly journals Fixed and Mobile Low-Cost Sensing Approaches for Microclimate Monitoring in Urban Areas: A Preliminary Study in the City of Bolzano (Italy)

Smart Cities ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-70
Author(s):  
Silvia Croce ◽  
Stefano Tondini

In the current scenario of massive urbanization and global climate change, an intelligent monitoring of the environmental variables is becoming fundamental to ensure good living conditions in cities. Indeed, the acquisition of data with high spatiotemporal resolution can enable the assessment of environmental vulnerabilities in urban areas towards the definition of responsive adaptation and mitigation strategies. In this context, the current work presents a two-fold approach based on low-cost cloud-connected sensors for (i) fixed and (ii) mobile monitoring of several environmental parameters. This paper, which focuses on the measurement aspects of the urban micro-climate, describes in detail the hardware and software components of both approaches, and how to exploit them for setting up a field campaign. The methods were tested in the city of Bolzano (Italy), demonstrating their suitability for identifying the spatial variability of the microclimate in relation to the urban morphology, and for highlighting the presence of the urban heat island and estimating its intensity.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Stefano Tondini ◽  
Farshad Hasanabadi ◽  
Roberto Monsorno ◽  
Antonio Novelli

In the scenario of massive urbanization and global climate change, the acquisition of microclimatic data in urban areas plays a key role in responsive adaptation and mitigation strategies. The enrichment of kinematic sensor data with precise, high-frequency and robust positioning directly relates to the possibility of creating added-value services devoted to improving the life-quality of urban communities. This work presents a low-cost cloud-connected mobile monitoring platform for multiple environmental parameters and their spatial variation in the urban context.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergi Ventura ◽  
Alba Badia ◽  
Ricard Segura ◽  
Joan Gilabert ◽  
Carme Llasat ◽  
...  

<p>Heat waves (HW) are expected to become more frequent and intense in urban areas, where currently 54% of the population resides (United Nations, 2018) and 60% are expected to do so by 2030. Urban policy makers are proposing various mitigation strategies, but currently lack the tools to determine how effective they will be in terms of the city´s geography climate and urban morphology. We use the Weather and Research Forecasting Model (WRF)  with the multi-layer Urban Scheme Building Effect Parametrization (BEP) and Building Energy Model (BEP+BEM) (Martilli et al., 2002), to simulate three scenarios proposed by the Urban Master Plan of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) for potential implementation. We include detailed input data using cartography at 10 m resolution and eleven urban classes.  We simulate a HW episode that occurred in July-August 2015 when temperatures reached 40°C during the day and did not go below 25°C at night, for more than five consecutive days. The three potential scenarios simulated are: 1) Increasing the albedo of rooftops to 0.85 for certain urban classes, 2) Increasing the urban green by an additional 255.64 ha according to the proposal of the Master Urban Plan for 2030 with two different irrigation schemes and 3) a combination of these two complementary mitigation strategies. We find that the cool roofs reduce temperatures best during the day (average reductions of 2.22°C), while the additional green areas help moderate temperatures evenly during the day and nighttime (average reductions of 0.15°C and 0.17°C, respectively). However, when irrigation is increased from 2 to 5L/m<sup>2</sup>day, the temperature reduction potential during the day is intensified due to the cooling effect of more evapotranspiration. The thermal regulation potential of the combined scenario is the most propagated over the AMB and has the highest impact with average daytime reductions of 1.26°C and maximum reduction of 4.73°C at 13:00 UTC.</p>


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Said Munir ◽  
Martin Mayfield ◽  
Daniel Coca

Small-scale spatial variability in NO2 concentrations is analysed with the help of pollution maps. Maps of NO2 estimated by the Airviro dispersion model and land use regression (LUR) model are fused with measured NO2 concentrations from low-cost sensors (LCS), reference sensors and diffusion tubes. In this study, geostatistical universal kriging was employed for fusing (integrating) model estimations with measured NO2 concentrations. The results showed that the data fusion approach was capable of estimating realistic NO2 concentration maps that inherited spatial patterns of the pollutant from the model estimations and adjusted the modelled values using the measured concentrations. Maps produced by the fusion of NO2-LCS with NO2-LUR produced better results, with r-value 0.96 and RMSE 9.09. Data fusion adds value to both measured and estimated concentrations: the measured data are improved by predicting spatiotemporal gaps, whereas the modelled data are improved by constraining them with observed data. Hotspots of NO2 were shown in the city centre, eastern parts of the city towards the motorway (M1) and on some major roads. Air quality standards were exceeded at several locations in Sheffield, where annual mean NO2 levels were higher than 40 µg/m3. Road traffic was considered to be the dominant emission source of NO2 in Sheffield.


2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Rogus ◽  
Carolyn Dimitri

AbstractUrban agriculture, a current trend in many US cities, is purported to bring enhanced food security, reduction of food waste, community building, open green space in cities and higher property values. However, the literature lacks an understanding of whether urban farming has extended beyond a compelling concept into the practice of farming in the city and peri-urban areas. The exact definition of an urban farm is challenging, since many urban farms have a primary mission of supporting social goals rather than providing food. Use of the USDA definition of farm omits many self-identified urban farms, but the most consistent measure of agriculture is the Census of Agriculture. Using census data, this paper finds that urban farms are smaller than the typical farm, and while the amount of urban and peri-urban farmland declined between 2002 and 2007, the total number of farms increased. Growth in farmland is positively related to land values, suggesting that increases in urban farmland are more likely to take place in population dense, land scarce areas. Spatial analysis of urban and peri-urban farms in the Northeast finds fewer clusters of farms in areas with high land costs. In the most populous Northeastern cities, the farms are more likely to be located in the peri-urban area than in the urban core. Urban farms in the Northeast were more likely to produce vegetables, eggs and goats. Significant levels of vegetable farm clusters were detected surrounding Providence, Boston and Hartford Metropolitan Statistical Areas, which are regions that had no significant level of clustering of total farms. Future analysis, incorporating data from the 2012 census, should provide insight into whether local policy changes have resulted in growth in urban farms and farmland.


Author(s):  
Tapan K. Datta ◽  
David Feber ◽  
Kerrie Schattler ◽  
Sue Datta

A vast majority of traffic crashes in urban areas occur at signalized intersections. Roadway geometry, traffic control, adjacent land uses, and environmental factors at intersections often contribute to the high incidence of traffic crashes and injuries. A public-private partnership project to identify high-crash and high-risk locations in the city of Detroit was initiated in 1996. Eighteen candidate sites were selected, and an extensive engineering study was conducted to develop countermeasures to help alleviate the traffic crash problem at the selected sites. The Automobile Association of America, Michigan, was the private partner in this joint venture and, in partnership with the city of Detroit, was a major contributor to covering the cost of improvements. The selection of countermeasures was based on state-of-the-art methodology and analysis, and implementation of the selected countermeasures at some of the sites was undertaken as the initial phase of the project. A comprehensive before-and-after evaluation study was performed at three of the improved sites. The study revealed that the safety improvements that were implemented lowered both crash and severity experience. The differences between the before and after crash frequencies proved to be statistically significant. Additionally, a benefit-cost analysis at the study locations indicated extraordinary results. This research presents the evaluation study results and discusses the countermeasures and improvements that were the most successful in mitigating traffic crash problems at the selected study locations.


Author(s):  
D. Strigaro ◽  
M. Cannata ◽  
D. Ravasi ◽  
E. Flacio ◽  
M. Antonovic

Abstract. The continuous expansion of invasive Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, combined to its ability to transmit arboviruses (e.g. dengue, chikungunya) is raising major public health concern in Europe. In Switzerland, the mosquito is firmly established in most urban areas of the Canton of Ticino, south of the Alps, and there is a real risk that it will colonize also urban areas north of the Alps in the next years. The spatial distribution and colonization of new areas by Ae. albopictus depends on several environmental parameters, such as winter and summer temperatures, and precipitation patterns. A key factor for Ae. albopictus to establish at higher latitudes is the capability to develop cold-tolerant overwintering diapausing eggs under specific environmental conditions. Weather-driven abundance models are used to map the areas of potential distribution and to predict temporal dynamics of Ae. albopictus and the transmission potential of arboviruses. This contribution presents the designed system that integrates low-cost and on-line IoT sensors to monitor temperature, humidity and light with istSOS an OGC Sensor Observation Service server implementation with a user friendly interface and rich feature collection to easily manage this sensor network and distribute data in a standard way (www.istsos.org).


Author(s):  
Mamoona Humayun ◽  
N. Z. Jhanjhi ◽  
Malak Z. Alamri ◽  
Azeem Khan

With the ubiquitous low-cost sensor devices and widespread use of IoT, the paradigm is shifted from urban areas towards a smart city. A smart city is an urban area that uses IoT technologies to collect data and manage resources efficiently. The vision is to improve the capabilities and to solve the citizens' problems (e.g., energy consumption, transportation, recycling, intelligent security, etc.) in an efficient way. A smart city is a multidimensional term including a smart economy, smart mobility, smart living, smart environment, smart people, and smart governance. Although the concept of a smart city is increasing and currently there exist many such cities in many developed countries, one of the key challenges faced by these cities is good governance. Smart cities need smart governance to run the city in a smarter way, and effective digital governance is a solution to this end. Digital governance refers to the use of digital technology in government practices.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra Duarte Vera ◽  
Julien Vanhulst ◽  
Eduardo Antonio Letelier Araya

PurposeRural drinking water services in Chile are managed by Rural Drinking Water Associations (RDWAs) with a community governance model. However, urban growth and a neoliberal institutional setting tend to favor market-style governance, both in terms of territorial planning and drinking water supply, placing stress on the community governance model of RDWA. The authors seek to understand these processes and identify the position of RDWA actors facing socio-territorial and environmental transformations experienced in peri-urban sectors of the city of Talca (Chile).Design/methodology/approachThe authors used georeferenced data, participant and non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews. With these data, the authors analyzed the positions and discourses of water governance actors in relation to socio-territorial transformations in the peri-urban areas of the city, as well as for tensions between community and market governance.FindingsThe authors identified a growth tendency of RDWA users around the city of Talca due to a sharp drinking water demand increase in peri-urban territories. As such, the authors describe and contrast RWDA managers and governmental regulators' discourses regarding environmental and socio-territorial transformations. In these discourses, the authors found three critical topics: (1) land liberalization blurring urban territory borders; (2) Law #20998, a poorly financed reform which raises the specter of RDWA privatization, jeopardizing historic community drinking water management; and (3) the consequences of declining community commitment to RDWAs.Practical implicationsOne key implication of these findings is the need to modify RDWA pricing policies to deal with new rural inhabitant lifestyles and drinking water demands and to fulfill water basic needs of rural families, avoiding privatization risks. This change could help not only dealing with growing scarcity during global climate change, but could also provide financial resources to face new technical and administrative requirements of SSR Law.Originality/valueThe originality of the study comes from using a framework of governance tensions applied to water governance in peri-urban areas in a neoliberal institutional setting.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivien Voss ◽  
K. Heinke Schlünzen ◽  
David Grawe

<p>Air pollution is an important topic within urban areas.  Limit values as given in the European Guidelines are introduced to reduce negative effects on humans and vegetation.  Exceedances of the limit values are to be assessed using measurements.  In case of found exceedances of the limit values, the local authorities need to act to reduce pollution levels. Highest values are found for several pollutants (NOx, NO2, particles) within densely build-up urban areas with traffic emissions being the major source and dispersion being very much impacted by the urban structures.  The quality assured measuring network used by the authorities is often too coarse to determine the heterogeneity in the concentration field. Low cost sample devices as employed in several citizen science projects might help to overcome the data sparsity. Volunteers measure the air quality at many sites, contribute to the measurement networks and provide the data on the web. However, the questions arising are: a) Are these data of sufficient high quality to provide results comparable to those of the quality assured networks? b) Is the network density sufficient to determine concentration patterns within the urban canopy layer? <br>One-year data from a citizen science network, which measures particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5) were compared to measurements provided by the local environmental agency, using two hot-spot areas in the city of Hamburg as an example. To determine how well the measurements agree with each other, a regression analyses was performed dependent on seasonal and diurnal cycles. Additionally, model simulations with the microscale obstacle resolving model MITRAS were performed for two characteristic building structures and different meteorological situations. The model results were used to determine local hot spots as well as areas where measurements might represent the concentration of particles for the urban quarter. The low cost sensor measurements show a general agreement to the city’s measurements, however, the values per sensor differ. Moreover, the measurements of the low-cost-sensor show an unrealistic dependence on relative humidity, resulting in over- or underestimations in certain cases. The model results clearly show that only a few sites allow measurements to be representative for a city quarter. The measurements of the citizen science project can provide a good overview about the tendencies of the air quality, but are currently not of sufficient quality to provide measurements calling for legal action.</p><p>The model results were used for the project AtMoDat. AtMoDat is an attempt to create a data standard for obstacle resolving models based on the existing Climate and Forecast (CF) conventions. A web-based survey is developed to get information on the requirements for the data standard. The next step is to extend the collection of model characteristics and eventually to provide a generic scheme.</p><p><strong>Acknowledgements</strong><br>This work contributes to project “AtMoDat” funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the funding number 16QK02C. Responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors.</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 204-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Rugolo

The contemporary model of the city is linked to the dynamics of information flows and economic and cultural influences. Consequently, the traditional administrative organization has proved inadequate favoring the definition of a new model of governance of urban areas, able to administer the complexity. This characteristic is typical of the metropolitan city, which requires a new institutional framework is equipped with tools and infrastructure suitable to govern the phenomena of mobility, economic development and transformations in the regime of synergistic and integrated.The metropolitan system the Strait of Messina need for a stable connection that ensures the conurbation of the two sides.


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