Heat exposure variations and mitigation in a densely populated neighborhood during a hot day: Towards a people-oriented approach to urban climate management

Geletič, Jan; Lehnert, Michal; Resler, Jaroslav; Krč, Pavel; Bures, Marek; Urban, Aleš; Krayenhoff, E. Scott

doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2023.110564

Cited by 15 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 78 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The PALM model has been proven to be of service for urban planning and the UHI mitigation strategies (e.g., Belda et al, 2021), and it is for example applied in the works of Geletič et al (2022Geletič et al ( , 2023 for heat stress mitigation strategies. One of the major conclusions of Belda et al (2021) was that PALM can show opposite sensitivity between physical and biophysical temperature indicators.…”

Section: Influence Of the Ibc On The Biometeorological Indexes During...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges of constructing and selecting the "perfect" initial and boundary conditions for the LES model PALM

Radovic,

Belda,

Resler

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. We present the process and difficulties of acquiring the proper initial and boundary conditions (IBC) for the state-of-the-art LES based model PALM (Parallelized Large-Eddy Simulation Model). We use the mesoscale model WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting model) as a source of inputs for the PALM preprocessor, and investigate the influence of the mesoscale model on the performance of the PALM model. Sixteen different WRF configurations were used as a proxy for a multi-model ensemble. We developed a technique for selecting the suitable sets of IBC, performed PALM model simulations driven by them, and investigated the consequences of selecting a sub-optimal WRF configuration. The procedure was tested for four episodes during different seasons of the year 2019, evaluating WRF and PALM outputs against the atmospheric radio sounding observations. We show that the PALM model outputs are heavily dependent on the imposed IBC, and have different responses for different times of the day, and different seasons. We demonstrate that the main driver of errors is the mesoscale model, and that the PALM model is capable of attenuating, but not fully correcting them. The PALM model attenuates the impact of errors in IBC in wind speed, while for the air temperature, PALM shows variable behavior with respect to driving conditions. This study stresses the importance of high-quality driving IBC, and the complexity of the process of their construction and selection.

show abstract

Section: Influence Of the Ibc On The Biometeorological Indexes During...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges of constructing and selecting the "perfect" initial and boundary conditions for the LES model PALM

Radovic,

Belda,

Resler

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The ever-increasing process of urbanization (United Nations, 2022) presses the issue of addressing urban environmental hazards, e.g. air pollution, heat waves, increased heat stress or disrupted thermal comfort (Geletič et al, 2023;Tian et al, 2024) and obliges cities across the world to move their focus towards environmental sustainability and human well-being (Gál and Kántor,…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges of high-fidelity air quality modeling in urban environments – PALM sensitivity study during stable conditions

Resler,

Bauerová,

Belda

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The urban air quality is an important part of human well-being and its detailed and precise modeling is important for efficient urban planning. In this study the potential sources of errors in LES runs of the PALM model in stable conditions for a high-traffic residential area in Prague, Czech Republic with focus to street canyon ventilation are investigated. The evaluation of the PALM model simulations against observations obtained during a dedicated campaign revealed unrealistically high concentrations of modeled air pollutants for a short period during a winter inversion episode. To identify potential reasons, the sensitivities of the model to changes of meteorological boundary conditions and adjustments of model parameters were tested. The model adaptations included adding the anthropogenic heat from cars, setting a bottom limit of the subgrid-scale TKE, adjusting the profiles of parameters of the Synthetic Turbulence Generator in PALM and limiting the model time step. The study confirmed the crucial role of the correct meteorological boundary conditions for realistic air quality modeling during stable conditions. Besides this, the studied adjustments of the model parameters proved to have a significant impact in these stable conditions, resulting in a decrease of concentration overestimation in range 30–66 % while exhibiting negligible influence on model results during the rest of the episode. This suggested that the inclusion or improvement of these processes in PALM is desirable despite their negligible impact in most other conditions. Moreover, the time step limitation test revealed numerical inaccuracies caused by discretization errors which occurred during such extremely stable conditions.

show abstract

The Increase in Urban Heat Due to Global Warming Can be Significantly Affected by the Structure of the Land Use and Land Cover

Janků,

Geletič,

Lehnert

et al. 2024

Intl Journal of Climatology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Urban populations are increasingly exposed to excessive heat. Heat distribution in the urban environment can be affected by several factors, including the spatial arrangement of land use/land cover (LULC) that is specific to a given city. This study applies a climate model with urban canopy parameterisation to downscale future climate projections and simulate the spatio‐temporal pattern of heat in the urban environment to better understand the effect of LULC structure on its distribution. Heat conditions are characterised by climate indices that are well representative in two mid‐sized Central European cities of Brno and Ostrava (Czech Republic). Our results show that the annual number of hot days (HOT), summer days (SUD), tropical nights (TRN) and warm nights (WAN) will increase significantly (p < 0.01) in the 21st century in both cities. The model also simulates a more intensive increase and a higher spatio‐temporal variability in all indices in Brno compared to Ostrava. In Brno, the annual number of HOT and TRN is projected to be more than 500% of the 1981–2010 reference period's value by the end of the 21st century under the RCP 8.5 scenario. To determine the causes of the differences in heat distribution, we applied LULC configuration metrics and correlation analysis using various geographical factors. The higher risk of urban heat in Brno compared to Ostrava can be attributed to a more homogenised and less fragmented LULC structure and to the more substantial role of altitude in the complex terrain of Brno. Other factors, such as the presence of impervious surfaces and vegetation, have a similar effect on the variability of the studied indices in both cities. Urban planners should consider the role of the LULC structure and the changes that can be made in a city when designing adaptation measures to mitigate the effects of urban heat.

show abstract

Heat exposure variations and mitigation in a densely populated neighborhood during a hot day: Towards a people-oriented approach to urban climate management

Cited by 15 publications

References 78 publications

Challenges of constructing and selecting the "perfect" initial and boundary conditions for the LES model PALM

Challenges of constructing and selecting the "perfect" initial and boundary conditions for the LES model PALM

Challenges of high-fidelity air quality modeling in urban environments – PALM sensitivity study during stable conditions

The Increase in Urban Heat Due to Global Warming Can be Significantly Affected by the Structure of the Land Use and Land Cover

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About