Our climate and our cities are changing. Though their changes are not completely dependent upon one another, there is still a coupling effect between them. This study assesses the role of urban form as it pertains to elements of climate change. It is comprised of two essays intended for publication. The first of these essays addresses the feedbacks between urban form, energy consumption, and rising global temperatures. The second essay looks at one particular factor of urban form--tree type--as it pertains to air pollution and urban heat island mitigation. Both papers use the analytical approaches necessary to answer the questions they pose, not ubiquitous over-generalizing modeling software or methods found often in the literature. As seen in the analyses, this practice--known as geocomputation--allows for a deeper and more accurate description of complex spatial relationships.

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Submitted by Lucienne Costa (lucienneferreira@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-08-13T19:37:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 NIKOLAI DA SILVA ESPINOZA – DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGMET) 2017.pdf: 3187688 bytes, checksum: 3f6f29d810cd5a2c18108d0d7b68009a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-13T19:37:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 NIKOLAI DA SILVA ESPINOZA – DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGMET) 2017.pdf: 3187688 bytes, checksum: 3f6f29d810cd5a2c18108d0d7b68009a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-22 / Capes / A ilha de calor urbana (ICU) é um fenômeno importante devido aos seus impactos diretos e indiretos sobre as populações humanas em ambientes urbanos. Esse fenômeno tem sido estudado amplamente usando tanto medições diretas a partir de sensores de temperatura do ar instalados em estações meteorológicas ou a bordo de veículos, como dados de temperatura da superfície medidos por sensoriamento remoto. Neste trabalho foi avaliada a variabilidade temporal e espacial da ICU na cidade de Manaus utilizando dados de precipitação, temperatura e umidade do ar em cinco estações meteorológicas distribuídas na área urbana e uma na área rural durante o período de julho de 2013 a julho de 2014. Adicionalmente, foram obtidas imagens do sensor OLI/TIRS a bordo do satélite Landsat 8 em quatro dias da estação menos chuvosa para estimar a temperatura da superfície e parâmetros de superfície, tais como o NDVI na área que estão inseridas as estações meteorológicas. Os resultados indicaram que a ICU atmosférica ocorre preferencialmente no período noturno, sendo mais intensa e condicionalmente desconfortável durante a estação seca da região. A partir das imagens de satélite, pode-se observar uma relação inversamente proporcional entre a temperatura da superfície e o NDVI, onde a maior variação de temperatura da superfície está localizada em áreas com pouca ou nenhuma vegetação. / The urban heat island (ICU) is an important phenomenon due to its direct and indirect impacts on human populations in urban environments. This phenomenon has been studied extensively using both direct measurements from air temperature sensors installed in fixed weather stations or mobile surveys using automobiles and remotely measured surface temperature data. This work evaluated the temporal and spatial variability of ICU in the city of Manaus using precipitation, temperature and air humidity data in five meteorological stations distributed in the urban area and one in the rural area during the period from July 2013 to July 2014. In addition, images of the Landsat 8 OLI / TIRS satellite were obtained in four days of the less rainy season to estimate the surface temperature in the area comprising the meteorological stations. The results indicated that atmospheric ICU occurs preferentially at night, being more intense and conditionally uncomfortable during the dry season of the region. From the satellite images, an inversely proportional relationship between the surface temperature and the NDVI can be observed, where the highest surface temperature variation is located in areas with little or no vegetation.

The aim of this study was to detect surface temperature changes in the České Budějovice during last 30 years. The aim was also to asses the influence of vegetation on the surface temperature. The study is based on the thermal data acquired by the Landsat TM 4 and 5 and the study site was in the České Budějovice and surroundings.

Les villes jouent un rôle majeur dans le changement climatique à l'échelle globale au travers des émissions de gaz à effet de serre qu'elles génèrent. Mais elles peuvent aussi influencer le climat aux échelles locale et régionale car elles traduisent une altération des modes d'occupation des sols qui modifie les échanges thermodynamiques entre la surface et l'atmosphère. Les études d'impacts en milieu urbain se concentrent principalement sur les effets du changement climatique sur le climat local des villes (et plus largement, sur un ensemble de dimensions environnementales) selon des approches ne tenant pas compte des rétroactions potentielles. Les hautes résolutions horizontales atteintes aujourd'hui par les modèles de climat régionaux rendent légitime et pertinent d'inclure une modélisation explicite des villes dans ces modèles pour traiter les interactions ville/climat. Le couplage du modèle de climat régional ALADIN à 12 km de résolution avec la plateforme de modélisation des surfaces continentales SURFEX intégrant le modèle de canopée urbaine TEB permet d'évaluer l'impact de l'urbanisation à l'échelle régionale. L'analyse de sensibilité comparant différentes approches de modélisation des zones urbaines montre que les villes modifient significativement la température de l'air proche de la surface. Les plus grandes agglomérations françaises induisent un réchauffement le jour et la nuit, qui s'étend au-delà des limites de la ville et affecte l'environnement à l'échelle régionale. La comparaison des simulations à de longues séries d'observation sur la région parisienne révèle que la modélisation explicite des processus urbains avec TEB reproduit mieux la dynamique journalière de l'îlot de chaleur urbain et son intensité en phase nocturne que l'approche conventionnelle des modèles de climat décrivant les villes comme de la roche. L'activation de TEB dans le modèle ALADIN permet donc de mieux représenter l'impact des villes sur les climat régional. Néanmoins, les études d'impacts du changement climatique sur les villes nécessitent une descente d'échelle complémentaire. Une simulation a été réalisée avec le modèle AROME couplé à SURFEX(TEB) à 2.5 km puis 1.3 km de résolution sur l'agglomération toulousaine pour la période couvrant la campagne expérimentale CAPITOUL (2004-2005). Les bénéfices de la paramétrisation urbaine sont confirmés à ces échelles. Les tests de sensibilité réalisés sur les différentes versions de TEB mettent en lumière la forte sensibilité des performances du modèle à la qualité des simulations atmosphériques AROME et à la précision des données de surface. Pour ces résolutions et avec les bases de données actuelles, les paramétrisations les plus sophistiquées de TEB (échanges turbulents dans la canopée urbaine, énergétique du bâtiment, végétation explicite) n'apportent pas d'amélioration par rapport à la version historique voire dégradent les résultats. Il reste donc des voies d'amélioration à explorer pour la configuration AROME-Climat avec SURFEX(TEB), aussi bien sur la physique et la dynamique du modèle atmosphérique que sur la qualité des bases de données. En parallèle, différentes méthodes de descente d'échelle à très haute résolution sur les villes sont envisagées pour raffiner encore les études d'impacts. / Greenhouse gas emissions generated by cities play a major role in climate change at a global scale. But cities can also influence the climate at the local and regional scales as they reflect an alteration of land-use that modifies the thermodynamic exchanges between the surface and the atmosphere. Impact studies in urban areas focus mainly on the effects of climate change on the local climate of cities (and more broadly on a range of environmental dimensions) using approaches that do not account for the feedback with the atmosphere. The high horizontal resolutions reached by regional climate models make it relevant to include explicit modeling of cities to address city/climate interactions. Coupling the ALADIN regional climate model ALADIN (12 km horizontal resolution) with the SURFEX modeling platform integrating the model of urban canopy TEB allows to evaluate the impact of the urbanization at the regional scale. Sensitivity analyses that compare different urban canopy modeling shows that cities significantly modify the near-surface air temperature. The largest French cities induce a warming day and night, which extends beyond the limits of the city and affects the environment on a regional scale. Comparison of the simulations with long-term time series of observations on the Paris region reveals that the explicit modeling of urban processes with TEB improve the daily dynamics of the urban heat island and its nocturnal intensity compare to the conventional approach of climate models that describes cities as rock. The activation of TEB in the ALADIN model thus makes it possible to represent the impact of cities on the regional climate. Nevertheless, impact studies of climate change on cities require a further downscalling. A simulation was carried out with the AROME model coupled with SURFEX (TEB) at 2.5 km and 1.3 km resolution on the agglomeration of Toulouse for the period covering the CAPITOUL experimental campaign (2004-2005). The benefits of urban parametrization are confirmed. The tests carried out on the different versions of TEB highlight the high sensitivity of the model's performance to the quality of the AROME atmospheric simulations and the accuracy of the surface description. For these resolutions and with the current databases, the most detail parametrization of TEB (turbulent exchanges in the urban canopy, building energy budget, explicit vegetation) do not seem relevant compared to the historical version. New develompents could thus benefits to the AROME-Climat configuration with SURFEX (TEB). In particular, The physics and dynamics of the atmospheric model as well as the accuracy of the databases could be improved. At the same time, various downscalling methods at very high resolution on the cities are envisaged to enhance the spatial resolution needed by the impact studies.

Submitted by Luciana Sebin (lusebin@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-14T12:46:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseCMNO.pdf: 7498079 bytes, checksum: f4a2b7e655a7e6fb0d19d9ed7a9144b1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-15T13:59:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseCMNO.pdf: 7498079 bytes, checksum: f4a2b7e655a7e6fb0d19d9ed7a9144b1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-15T13:59:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseCMNO.pdf: 7498079 bytes, checksum: f4a2b7e655a7e6fb0d19d9ed7a9144b1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-15T13:59:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseCMNO.pdf: 7498079 bytes, checksum: f4a2b7e655a7e6fb0d19d9ed7a9144b1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-01-19 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Nocturnal heat island formation is a prominent phenomenon in research of urban planning and thermal comfort. This phenomenon is the result of the influence of urbanization characteristics, which alter the energy balance of the cities, and is characterized by an increase in air temperature, from the periphery to the center of cities. The heat island has as a major cause, the urban geometry. In this context, the model proposed by Oke, in 1981, became a reference in the area because of its importance in analytical studies of relation between urban geometry and the formation of heat islands. This research aims to determine the role of urban geometry in the formation of nocturnal heat islands, from the adaptation of a simplified model for a computational simulation tool GIS (Geographic Information System). The methodological procedures have steps: study of theoretical and numerical base, developing a calculation algorithm and its incorporation into the GIS platform, data monitoring for calibration (validation) and simulation. The measured data for the tool validation demonstrated an increasing trend of heat island with increasing H/W ratio (height/width) canyon, but there are different behavior for different ranges of roughness length (Z0). The developed tool, THIS (Tool for Heat Island Simulation), was used in simulation of different scenarios, which showed that urban canyons of greater roughness result in heat island values twice lower compared to the canyons of lower roughness, for the same H/W ratio. The development of THIS tool expands the possibilities of simulations to forecast heat islands to different climatic conditions and suggests further discussion on the influence of different urban geometry settings in the formation of heat island. / A formação de ilha de calor noturna é um fenômeno de destaque em pesquisas de planejamento urbano e conforto térmico. Esse fenômeno é resultado da influência das características da urbanização, que alteram o balanço energético das cidades, e caracteriza-se pelo aumento da temperatura do ar, da periferia para o centro das cidades. A ilha de calor tem como uma das principais causas, a geometria urbana. Nesse contexto, o modelo proposto por Oke, em 1981, se tornou referência na área por sua importância em estudos de análise de relação entre a geometria urbana e a formação de ilhas de calor. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo verificar o papel da geometria urbana na formação de ilhas de calor noturna, a partir da adaptação de um modelo simplificado para uma ferramenta de simulação computacional SIG (Sistema de Informação Geográfica). Os procedimentos metodológicos contam com as etapas de: estudo da base teórico-numérica, desenvolvimento de um algoritmo de cálculo e sua incorporação à plataforma SIG, monitoramento de dados para calibração (validação) e simulação. Os dados medidos para a validação da ferramenta demonstraram uma tendência crescente da ilha de calor com o aumento da relação H/W (altura/largura) do cânion, mas há comportamentos distintos para diferentes faixas de comprimento de rugosidade (Z0). A ferramenta desenvolvida, THIS (Tool for Heat Island Simulation), foi utilizada em simulação de diferentes cenários, que demonstrou que cânions urbanos de maior rugosidade resultam em valores de ilha de calor duas vezes menor em relação aos cânions de menor rugosidade, para um mesmo valor de relação H/W. O desenvolvimento da ferramenta THIS amplia as possibilidades de simulações para previsão de ilhas de calor para diferentes condições climáticas e sugere uma discussão mais aprofundada sobre a influência de diferentes configurações de geometria urbana na formação de ilhas de calor.

abstract: The global increase in urbanization has raised questions about urban sustainability to which multiple research communities have entered. Those communities addressing interest in the urban heat island (UHI) effect and extreme temperatures include land system science, urban/landscape ecology, and urban climatology. General investigations of UHI have focused primarily on land surface and canopy layer air temperatures. The surface temperature is of prime importance to UHI studies because of its central rule in the surface energy balance, direct effects on air temperature, and outdoor thermal comfort. Focusing on the diurnal surface temperature variations in Phoenix, Arizona, especially on the cool (green space) island effect and the surface heat island effect, the dissertation develops three research papers that improve the integration among the abovementioned sub-fields. Specifically, these papers involve: (1) the quantification and modeling of the diurnal cooling benefits of green space; (2) the optimization of green space locations to reduce the surface heat island effect in daytime and nighttime; and, (3) an evaluation of the effects of vertical urban forms on land surface temperature using Google Street View. These works demonstrate that the pattern of new green spaces in central Phoenix could be optimized such that 96% of the maximum daytime and nighttime cooling benefits would be achieved, and that Google Street View data offers an alternative to other data, providing the vertical dimensions of land-cover for addressing surface temperature impacts, increasing the model accuracy over the use of horizontal land-cover data alone. Taken together, the dissertation points the way towards the integration of research directions to better understand the consequences of detailed land conditions on temperatures in urban areas, providing insights for urban designs to alleviate these extremes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geography 2018

abstract: This dissertation explores vulnerability to extreme heat hazards in the Maricopa County, Arizona metropolitan region. By engaging an interdisciplinary approach, I uncover the epidemiological, historical-geographical, and mitigation dimensions of human vulnerability to extreme heat in a rapidly urbanizing region characterized by an intense urban heat island and summertime heat waves. I first frame the overall research within global climate change and hazards vulnerability research literature, and then present three case studies. I conclude with a synthesis of the findings and lessons learned from my interdisciplinary approach using an urban political ecology framework. In the first case study I construct and map a predictive index of sensitivity to heat health risks for neighborhoods, compare predicted neighborhood sensitivity to heat-related hospitalization rates, and estimate relative risk of hospitalizations for neighborhoods. In the second case study, I unpack the history and geography of land use/land cover change, urban development and marginalization of minorities that created the metropolitan region's urban heat island and consequently, the present conditions of extreme heat exposure and vulnerability in the urban core. The third study uses computational microclimate modeling to evaluate the potential of a vegetation-based intervention for mitigating extreme heat in an urban core neighborhood. Several findings relevant to extreme heat vulnerability emerge from the case studies. First, two main socio-demographic groups are found to be at higher risk for heat illness: low-income minorities in sparsely-vegetated neighborhoods in the urban core, and the elderly and socially-isolated in the expansive suburban fringe of Maricopa County. The second case study reveals that current conditions of heat exposure in the region's urban heat island are the legacy of historical marginalization of minorities and large-scale land-use/land cover transformations of natural desert land covers into heat-retaining urban surfaces of the built environment. Third, summertime air temperature reductions in the range 0.9-1.9 °C and of up to 8.4 °C in surface temperatures in the urban core can be achieved through desert-adapted canopied vegetation, suggesting that, at the microscale, the urban heat island can be mitigated by creating vegetated park cool islands. A synthesis of the three case studies using the urban political ecology framework argues that climate changed-induced heat hazards in cities must be problematized within the socio-ecological transformations that produce and reproduce urban landscapes of risk. The interdisciplinary approach to heat hazards in this dissertation advances understanding of the social and ecological drivers of extreme heat by drawing on multiple theories and methods from sociology, urban and Marxist geography, microclimatology, spatial epidemiology, environmental history, political economy and urban political ecology. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Environmental Social Science 2013

A modificação das condições iniciais do clima é conseqüência inerente da substituição da cobertura natural do solo pelo ambiente construído. Nesse processo, um dos mecanismos do sistema cidade-atmosfera mais afetado pela mudança do uso e da cobertura do solo é o campo térmico urbano. Assim, esta pesquisa objetivou estudar a configuração do campo térmico da cidade de São Carlos nas suas dimensões espaços-temporais, com vistas a conhecer a intensidade da ilha de calor urbano no período de verão, dentro de suas variações diurnas e das condições impostas pelos diferentes tipos de tempo habituais, com o aporte da abordagem dinâmica do clima. A análise da intensidade do campo térmico urbano foi feita a partir de registros de dados climáticos contínuos tomados em superfície por quatro estações automáticas instaladas em diferentes regiões da malha urbana. Os resultados obtidos denotaram que a maior intensidade da ilha de calor urbano, no período de verão, ocorreu na atuação da massa Tropical Atlântica sobre a região, cujo tipo de tempo habitual foi caracterizado por cenário atmosférico com predominância de céu claro, alta incidência de radiação solar direta e valores de temperatura do ar elevados com máxima diária acima da média das máximas indicadas pelas normais climatológicas. Sob essas condições, observou-se que as características do entorno construído exerceram maior influência no comportamento térmico urbano, na qual as diferenças térmicas entre diferentes regiões dentro da malha urbana de São Carlos foram superiores a \'5 GRAUS\' Celsius. Observou-se, ainda, que a maior expressão da ilha de calor urbano ocorreu após o pôr-do-sol, nos horários entre 21:30h e 22:00h. / The initial conditions of the climate are consequence of replacing the natural ground cover by the built environment. In this process, one of the most affected mechanics of the city-atmosphere system due to the change of use and land cover is the urban thermal field. Thus, this research aim to study the configuration of the thermal field of São Carlos in the spatial and temporal dimensions for understanding the intensity of urban heat island in the summer, taking into account its diurnal temperature variations and imposed conditions by different weather types, guided by the climate dynamics approach. The analysis of the intensity of urban thermal field is made from records of climatic data observed in solid ground for four automatic weather stations placed in different areas of the city. The obtained results denote that the highest intensity of urban heat island in summer occurs in the activity of Tropical Atlantic air mass over the region, where the habitual weather was clear skies with high incidence of direct solar radiation and values of air temperature with high daily maximum above the average of the levels indicated by the climate normals. Under these weather conditions, it is observed that the characteristics of the built environment have a greater influence on urban thermal behavior, in which the temperature variations between different regions within the urban area of San Carlos were above 5 Celsius \'DEGREES\'. It is also observed that the highest intensity of urban heat island occurred after sunset, at times between 21:30 and 22:00h.

A Região Metropolitana de São Paulo (RMSP) conta com mais de 20 milhões de habitantes em 7958 km², o que a caracteriza como uma megacidade. Este fato ocasiona o efeito de ilha de calor que pode resultar em interações complexas com circulações de mesoescala, tais como a brisa marítima, podendo influenciar nos padrões de circulação local e afetar diretamente o tempo e o clima da região. Dessa forma, através da modelagem numérica com o modelo de mesoescala WRF este trabalho se propôs a analisar e avaliar os possíveis efeitos da expansão da mancha urbana - passada e futura - na modificação destes padrões em duas estações do ano de 2007: inverno (18/08) e verão (07/03). Para isto introduziu-se diferentes manchas urbanas no modelo, supondo nenhuma urbanização, urbanização observada em 1952 e em 2007, bem como uma suposta urbanização prevista para o ano de 2030. O acoplamento de um modelo de dossel urbano junto ao WRF também foi avaliado, e os resultados mostraram que para o inverno a inclusão do mesmo se mostrou dispensável, enquanto para o verão as simulações em que o módulo esteve ativo se mostraram mais coerentes à realidade. Para as duas estações observou-se a influência da expansão da mancha urbana nos eventos de brisa marítima, sendo que quanto maior a área urbanizada maior o tempo de deslocamento da frente de brisa continente adentro, podendo a diferença chegar a 2 horas. Diferenças na temperatura também puderam ser vistas, principalmente à noite no período de inverno, de forma que algumas regiões chegaram a apresentar 6 °C a mais em 2007. Observou- se uma frente de umidade acompanhando a frente de brisa marítima e quanto maior a urbanização, menor a quantidade de umidade associada, chegando a uma redução de 22% durante o inverno e de 33% durante o verão. No inverno não foram observadas grandes diferenças na precipitação, enquanto que no verão foram encontradas diferenças significativas em praticamente todo o domínio de simulação, chegando a 50 mm em determinadas regiões (a mais ou a menos). Tais diferenças na precipitação não se mostraram lineares com a expansão da mancha urbana. Cortes verticais não evidenciaram circulações bem definidas associadas à ilha de calor, nem para o inverno nem para o verão, no entanto, claramente pôde-se observar a influência que a expansão urbana tem sobre os episódios de brisa marítima, em quaisquer das variáveis meteorológicas analisadas. / The Metropolitan Area of São Paulo (MASP) has over 20 million inhabitants over a 7958 km² area, which characterizes a megacity. This fact causes the heat island effect that can result in complex interactions with mesoscale circulations such as the sea breeze and can influence the local circulation and directly affect the weather and climate of the region. Therefore, through numerical modeling of the atmosphere using the WRF mesoscale model this work analyses and evaluates the possible effects of urban expansion - past and future on the modification of these patterns in two days representatives of the winter and summer (18/08 and 07/03, respectively). For that purpose we introduced different types of urban areas in the model, assuming no urbanization, using the urbanization observed in 1952 and 2007 as well as a hypothetical urbanization numerically predicted for the year of 2030. The coupling of an urban canopy model (UCM) along with WRF was also evaluated and the results showed that the inclusion of UCM proved to be unnecessary during wintertime. However, in the summer, the simulations where the module was activated were more consistent with reality. For the two seasons we observed the influence of urban expansion in the events of sea breeze, and the higher the urbanized area more increased was the travel time of the sea breeze front inland, being the time difference as high as 2 hours. Differences in temperature were also observed, especially at night in the winter, so that some regions were as high as 6 °C hotter in 2007. A moisture front accompanying the sea breeze front and the higher the urbanization the lower the amount of moisture associated, reaching a reduction of 22% during winter and 33% during the summer. During the winter no major differences were observed in precipitation, while in the summer significant differences were found almost over all simulation domain, reaching 50 mm in certain regions (positive or negative). Such differences in precipitation were not linear with the expansion of urban area. Vertical sections did not show well-defined circulations associated with urban heat island, neither for the winter nor for summer, however, we can clearly observe the influence that urban area extension has on episodes of sea breeze in any of the weather variables.