Recent development of assessment tools for urban climate and heat‐island investigation especially based on experiences in Japan

Abstract

Abstract:In recent years, problems concerning the urban climate-including the urban heat-island effect and urban air pollution -have attracted much attention in terms of the widespread urbanization in many parts of the world, including Japan. Assessment tools for urban climate are very important to understand effective countermeasures for heat-island mitigation. In this paper, various assessment tools are introduced and classified according to corresponding modelling scales. Special attention is given to the recent progress in Japan. It is shown that these assessment tools are very powerful at estimating the effectiveness of countermeasures. Furthermore, these assessment tools should become design tools for practical applications in the future.

Urban Climatology ICUC6

“…Human comfort in the urban environment is a major theme of urban climate research, illustrated here by the papers of Emmanuel et al (2007), Ooka (2007) and Thorsson et al (2007). Emmanuel et al (2007) use the ENVI-met model (Bruse and Fleer, 1998) to look at the role of urban designs in Colombo, Sri Lanka and their impact on physiologically equivalent temperature.…”

“…Thorsson et al (2007) use the RayMan model (Matzarakis, 2000) with observations of radiant temperatures in Goteborg Sweden to assess thermal comfort in an open square. Ooka (2007), in his review of assessment tools for urban climate, provides an overview of approaches that are being used, especially in Japan. The tools, which are primarily numerical models, range in the scale of their application from individuals to citywide scales.…”

“…The papers by both Ooka (2007) and Martilli (2007) provide insight into the current status of modelling at the meso-scale. Models at this scale allow urban areas to be resolved and can provide the upper boundary conditions for more detailed modelling as Ooka (2007) demonstrates.…”

“…Models at this scale allow urban areas to be resolved and can provide the upper boundary conditions for more detailed modelling as Ooka (2007) demonstrates. Turbulent processes are addressed in detail by Christen et al (2007), Coceal et al (2007) and Klein et al (2007).…”

“…Energy balance processes are considered generally in the papers by Pearlmutter et al (2007), Roth (2007), Ooka (2007) and Martilli (2007). Kawai et al (2007) evaluate the performance of a numerical urban energy balance model using energy balance data collected from an outdoor physical scale model.…”