In recent years, the representation of climate information in a way to support decision making has been gaining momentum. Worldwide, these so-called climate services are emerging as an essential tool to connect the advances in climate science with the domains of climate change adaptation. The methodology developed within the CLARITY project (funded through European Union funding program Horizon 2020)

COVID-19 pandemic is the global health crisis of our time. A recent study has found that the virus can remain viable in air for multiple hours, thus the spread of virus can be affected by wind conditions such as wind speed and direction. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the impact of wind conditions on COVID-19 pandemic in Jakarta, Indonesia. The wind parameters were evaluated using wind roses

Since the estimation of anthropogenic heating is always problematic in medium-sized cities because of data lacking, we intended to test how much the omission of such data influences the physical consistency in a numerical model (Weather Research and Forecasting – WRF). It was hypothesized that anthropogenic heating is an important input for the model, even in a relatively small urban area, therefore

This study aims to examine the associations between land surface temperature (LST) and annual household energy expenditure (HEE) in urbanized zones of the Netherlands. To do so, satellite images of 96 days at four different overpassing local times (10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 10:30 p.m., 1:30 a.m.) are retrieved, and annual average maximum (LST-Max) and average minimum (LST-Min) LST at each zone are calculated

Urban morphology has an important impact on the outdoor thermal environment; studying the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of air temperature and its relationship with urban morphology is the prerequisite for improving the outdoor thermal environment in the urban sectors. In July 2016, the study selected five sectors (C1 is a commercial sector, I1 is an industry sector, and R1-R3 are

Carbonaceous components [organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), water soluble organic carbon (WSOC), primary organic carbon (POC), secondary organic carbon (SOC) and carbonaceous aerosols (CAs)] and major and trace elements (Na, Mg, Ca, Al, Fe, Ti, Cl, P, S, K, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo and B) of PM10 were studied over the eastern Himalayan high altitude station [Darjeeling: 27.01°N and 88.15°E, 2200 m

The urban heat island (UHI) effect has been the subject of much research due to its adverse effects on health, energy, and the environment. The objective of this work is to investigate the key parameters contributing to the urban heat island effect in Beirut city and to improve the temperature forecast in the city by taking these parameters into account. This is accomplished by coupling the single

This study investigates the thermal behavior of local climate zones (LCZs) together with seasonal divergence. Firstly, LCZs were distinguished by combining satellite imagery and LiDAR data. Trees accounted for the highest proportion among the land cover type LCZs, whereas open mid-rise was the predominant zone in the built-up types. According to the comparison of mean LSTs, the results found that the

The concept of urban livability is defined as the quality of life and wellbeing of urban residents. That is the interpolation of people, environment and built environment. Among the components of natural environment, climate is playing the most important and significant role. Two types of data were measured for calculating the thermal comfort in the study area. Subjective and objective evaluations

Urban areas, home to over half of the world's population, are at the forefront of climate change impacts and adaptation issues. Planning sustainable cities for the future requires not only a clear understanding of how climate change will influence urban areas but also how urban areas influence the local climate. This paper validates the Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) model at

Outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) has a significant effect on the health and well-being of urban dwellers. One of the key factors contributing to the tempo-spatial variation of thermal comfort in urban neighbourhoods is the geometrical characteristics. This paper develops a novel modelling framework to comprehensively evaluate the tempo-spatial thermal comfort performance of neighbourhoods on the basis

Although air pollution is a global problem, the densely populated developing countries, for instance, India, face severe air pollution. Rapid economic growth and poorly regulated developmental activities have further deteriorated the air quality in this region. Hence, a comprehensive investigation is essential to address the problems of air pollution in this region. In this study, we investigated the

Climate emergency declarations are amongst the strongest statement from governments in the face of global warming. At least 1217 local governments have so far declared a climate emergency; however, on a national government level, only seven such declarations have been made, most of which were in 2019. The exponential rise of local governments declaring a climate emergency is significant, and developing

At the end of February 2020, Peru started the first cases of pneumonia associated with coronavirus (COVID-19), they were reported in Lima, Peru (Rodriguez-Morales et al., 2020). Therefore, the first week on March started with 72 infected people, the government published new law for a national crisis by COVID-19 pandemic (Vizcarra et al., 2020), with a quarantine in each city of Peru. Our analysis has

Urbanization modifies the hydrologic response of a catchment significantly. An understanding of historical patterns and changes in trends of hydrological variables in cities is important to design, maintain and operate the urban infrastructure. The historical trend analysis of various climate variables including temperature and precipitation, and the dependence of precipitation on temperature is presented

Urban climate manifests itself through thermal and wind environments specific to cities and can cause wind danger or overheating. Cities can benefit from preventing these effects through adaptation measures. However, before any action can be taken in improving these urban climate conditions, an awareness of the problems is needed. Numerous studies show that there is awareness of urban climate extremes

The impact of urban changes from 1989 to 2015 on urban rainstorms is assessed for the rapidly expanding Indian city of Hyderabad. A typical event that occurred during 12–14 June 2015 is simulated, and the possible association between altered urban-sprawl and shifts in the rainfall timing and patterns are analyzed. The simulation results revealed that the consideration of urban footprint changes was

In 2014, the Singapore government announced plans to increase the adoption of solar power, including by integrating solar PV systems into the urban environment. Careful planning of a neighbourhood at early design stage, which determines the overall urban morphology, is important for effective deployment of solar panels in urban environment. This study performed parametric assessment to understand the

Streets are the fundamental elements of urban form in terms of microclimate as well as place making in cities. Microclimate itself is influenced by climate critical parameters of the Local Climate Zone Classification (LCZ) system. Therefore, a key design question is the role, if any, of LCZ classification for climate guidelines at street scale. In this paper we explore the Intra LCZ zone temperature

The Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) had a rapid demographic and urban growth during the second half of the twentieth century that led to development of an intense Urban Heat Island (UHI). In the urbanized zone, the mean maximum and minimum temperatures have had significant increases of the order of 3 and 4°C during the last one hundred years. Even more, the areas of larger mean annual temperature

Strong, cold winds constitute a problem in southern Scandinavia with its open, flat terrain. In the city of Malmö in the south of Sweden there are several new ongoing and planned large development projects, many of which are being constructed in wind exposed areas. One of the planned areas is Nyhamnen, a former harbour area in the north of the city. This paper describes an analysis of a preliminary

We measured evapotranspiration rate for tall trees, we developed a new weight scale able to measure the amount of evapotranspiration from a large, full-sized tree, and is using the large-sized scale to carry out long-term measurements comparing the evapotranspiration of individual trees and those located in forests. The amount of transpiration per unit leaf area of isolated and forest edge individuals

While climate change projections for the Mediterranean region indicate an increased exposure to heatwaves (HW), such prospects are particularly challenging in urban areas, where thermal stress can be exacerbated by the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. In that regard, understanding spatial patterns of thermal performance is of the utmost importance, in order to address corresponding adaptation measures

Many cities are expected to face a strong increase in the frequency and intensity of heat-waves by the end of the 21st Century due to climate change. In Paris, the frequency of heat-waves could rise from an average of one day per year to 14–26 days per year, with temperatures reaching up to 50 °C. Since 2012, pavement-watering is viewed as a potential tool for emergency cooling by the city while scientific

The Lowry approach (1977) sets the framework for evaluating the meteorological effects of the urban heat island (UHI), by describing it as the superposition of “background”, “local” and “urban” climates. In this paper, by adapting this framework to the study of UHI countermeasures, we propose a statistical method suited for assessing their effects in the field. The framework demonstrates that direct

The ambient air quality is a well-known problem for big cities with dense population and high traffic volume. The traditional way for monitoring air quality is using stationary measurement stations. However, the main disadvantages are limited spatial resolution and restricted possibility of mapping spatial distributions of air pollutants. To provide high spatial and temporal resolution, mobile measurements

World Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) Level 0 method announced a workflow of mapping Local Climate Zones (LCZs). However, the low accuracy of LCZ classifications in Level 0 especially for the built-up areas caused by recognition of classes and operator bias is becoming an obstacle for further study in WUDAPT Level 1 and 2. Since the landscape in Japan is complicated, the recognition of classes

This study is the first, purely data-driven technique to assess the classical urban climatological problem of the relation between urban heat island (UHI) and urban rainfall modification. Urban areas affect regional climate. This knowledge is based on studies involving observations or process-scale models. These studies, while important for understanding the dynamic processes, come at a cost (time

This study analyzes spatio-temporal variability and erosion potential related to rainfall in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro (MRJ), considering the period of 1997 to 2016. The rainfall series of Alerta Rio system were used, which is composed of 33 rainfall stations. To establish the values of the erosivity index, a linear eq. (Y = a + bx) was used. Ordinary kriging and clustering techniques were

Up-to-date climate scenarios warn that the frequency and intensity of heat waves are likely to increase in Europe during the twenty first century. In these circumstances, urban climate is progressively taken into account in urban planning processes, for instance using terrain classifications. The developed methodology involves the Local Climate Zone scheme (LCZ), which has been applied to Nancy, France

Integrated Urban hydrometeorological, climate and environmental Services (IUS) is a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) initiative to aid development of science-based services to support safe, healthy, resilient and climate friendly cities. Guidance for Integrated Urban Hydrometeorological, Climate and Environmental Services (Volume I) has been developed with the intent to provide an overview of

Rapid urbanization combined with climate change necessitates new types of urban services that make best use of science and technology. The Integrated Urban Hydro-Meteorological, Climate and Environmental Services and systems are a new initiative from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that seeks to provide science-based integrated urban services supporting safe, healthy and resilient cities

NASA recently extended the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Application (MERRA) with an atmospheric aerosol reanalysis which includes five particulate species: sulfate, organic matter, black carbon, mineral dust and sea salt. The MERRA Aerosol Reanalysis (MERRAero) is an innovative tool to study air quality issues around the world for its global and constant coverage and its distinction

Since the conclusion of the 2014 Climate Summit in New York and the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris, China has been actively advancing its national policies on climate change mitigation and adaptation since more unpredictable extreme weather events are expected, which may incur a heavy cost in terms of economics and public health. Since China is still in the process of urbanisation

Concerns on negative effects of urbanization on the environment make the aerodynamic properties of urban areas increasingly important in architectural design, particularly at high density cities. Over the past few decades, a rapid development in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has resulted in the widespread use of this technique not only as an environmental research tool but also as an architectural