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Urban Microclimate Monitoring, Mitigation and Adaptation

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 August 2024) | Viewed by 7140

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
Interests: urban climate; microclimate monitoring; urban biometeorology; urban environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: climate monitoring; urban climate; urban heat island; mountain climate; climate change

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the last decade or decade and a half, the urban climate monitoring has growing rapidly by deployment the urban meteorological networks (UMNs) in cities worldwide. These UMNs, which represented from a dozen to few hundred stations with various sensor types, mostly monitored local level climate conditions, but over time their datasets have started to be used more intensively for microclimate assessments in cities. Based on the interactive impacts of climate change and urbanization trends, the monitoring and assessments of climate conditions on the micro-level is of paramount importance today. Therefore, near UMN systems, other approaches for microclimate monitoring (citizen weather stations, smart-phone records, web-based tools, purpose-designed mobile/portable platforms) are developing that will contribute to further measurements, assessments, and climate adaptation steps.

The scope of this Special Issue is to present, through the published articles, new datasets and assessments from cities with different spatial/population scales and that are located in different climates, show new methods and techniques of microclimate monitoring, see how microclimate monitoring can be integrated in the pubic early warning systems of cities, how microclimate datasets contribute to mitigation and adaptation actions (strategies, action plans, etc.), or how useful are microclimate datasets as an input for climate modelling (e.g., WRF, MUCLIMO, PALM-4U).

Articles from this Special Issue, with new outcomes and practices, could contribute to achieve the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) within the Agenda 2030, that are directly related to urban climate and urban environment issues, through: a) raise awareness of the necessity of improving public health care for vulnerable groups (under age or poverty groups) of the population in cities (SDG 3); b) contribute to a better implementation of climate-conscious urbanization that can improve the quality of life of the population and biodiversity, and adapt cities to climate change (SDG 11); and c) contribute to further adaptation to climate events (caused by climate change processes), especially in urban areas where the microclimate is more and more modified due to the interactive impact of climate change and urbanization (SDG 13).

Therefore, the topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- Microclimate assessments based on in situ or mobile measurements;

- New methods and techniques of microclimate monitoring;

- Development of sensors/networks, IoT sensing;

- Application to citizen sciences and early warning systems;

- Microclimate datasets contribution to urbanization, public health, traffic, etc.;

- Application in climate modelling.

Prof. Dr. Stevan Savić
Dr. Matej Ogrin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • urban meteorological network (UMN)
  • mobile measurement
  • new observational technique
  • sensor/network development
  • crowdsourcing
  • urban dataset analytic
  • public early warning system/platform
  • citizen science

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 11698 KiB  
Article
Advancing Urban Microclimate Monitoring: The Development of an Environmental Data Measurement Station Using a Low-Tech Approach
by Alexandre Lefevre, Bruno Malet-Damour, Harry Boyer and Garry Rivière
Sustainability 2024, 16(7), 3093; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16073093 - 8 Apr 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2994
Abstract
Researchers studying urban climates aim to understand phenomena like urban heat islands (UHIs), which describe temperature differences between urban and rural areas. However, studies often lack numerous measurement points and frequently overlook parameters like radiation and air velocity due to the high cost [...] Read more.
Researchers studying urban climates aim to understand phenomena like urban heat islands (UHIs), which describe temperature differences between urban and rural areas. However, studies often lack numerous measurement points and frequently overlook parameters like radiation and air velocity due to the high cost of precision instrumentation. This results in data with a low resolution, particularly in tropical cities where official weather stations are scarce. This research introduces a new, low-tech tool for district-level outdoor thermal comfort assessment and UHI characterization to address these challenges. The automated weather station employs sensors to measure temperature, humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, and globe temperature. The paper details these sensors’ rigorous selection and validation process, followed by a description of the sensor assembly, data acquisition chain, and network operation mechanisms. Calibration outcomes in laboratory and in situ environments highlight the station’s reliability, even in tropical conditions. In conclusion, this weather station offers a cost-effective solution to gathering high-resolution data in urban areas, enabling an improved understanding of the UHI phenomenon and the refinement of urban microclimate numerical models. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Microclimate Monitoring, Mitigation and Adaptation)
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24 pages, 3023 KiB  
Article
Long-Term Assessment of Bioclimatic Conditions at Micro and Local Scales in the Cities of the Western Part of the Balkan Peninsula during the 21st Century
by Dejana Đurđević, Milica Vasić, Matej Ogrin, Stevan Savić, Dragan Milošević, Jelena Dunjić, Ivan Šećerov, Matej Žgela, Marijana Boras, Ivana Herceg Bulić, Milica Pecelj, Sanda Šušnjar, Milica Lukić, Marko Ivanišević, Goran Trbić, Golub Ćulafić and Luka Mitrović
Sustainability 2023, 15(21), 15286; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152115286 - 25 Oct 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2656
Abstract
Thermal comfort assessments at local or micro-scales within urban areas can provide crucial insights for the urban adaptation strategies pertaining to climate-conscious urban planning and public health. However, the availability of long-term or mid-term daily or hourly meteorological data sets from urban environments [...] Read more.
Thermal comfort assessments at local or micro-scales within urban areas can provide crucial insights for the urban adaptation strategies pertaining to climate-conscious urban planning and public health. However, the availability of long-term or mid-term daily or hourly meteorological data sets from urban environments remains a significant challenge even in the 21st century. Consequently, this study aimed to assess the thermal conditions in cities across the western part of the Balkan Peninsula, encompassing five countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro), by utilizing the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) index. Meteorological data sets, comprising air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and cloudiness, were collected from 32 national meteorological stations/measurement locations spanning the period from 2001 to 2020. The PET calculations were conducted based on meteorological data measured three times per day (7 a.m., 2 p.m., and 9 p.m.). Upon conducting a spatial analysis of the meteorological stations, it was observed that most of them (25 stations) were situated within built-up areas or urban suburbs, rendering them highly relevant for local or micro-scale climate and bioclimate assessments. The findings revealed that urban locations exhibited slightly higher PET heat stress levels, particularly during the summer season and at 2 p.m. Moreover, higher average PET values were observed in both urban and non-urban stations situated within a continental climate during warmer periods, such as summer. In contrast, during the colder seasons, namely winter and spring, higher PET values were prevalent in the Mediterranean region. Furthermore, the PET frequency analysis revealed a greater prevalence of extreme and severe heat stress levels in stations within continental climates, particularly those located in urban areas, as compared to stations in Mediterranean climates. In contrast, during the winter and spring seasons, monitoring stations in close proximity to the Adriatic Sea, characterized by a Mediterranean climate, exhibited significantly lower levels of cold stress compared to inland stations. Evidently, in addition to the climatic characteristics and surrounding terrain, the urban morphology significantly impacts the thermal conditions within cities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Microclimate Monitoring, Mitigation and Adaptation)
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