Abstract
The present paper aims to study the impact of Nature Based Solutions (NBS) on the urban environment. The Surface Urban Energy and Water balance Scheme (SUEWS) is used to quantify the impact of NBS in the city of Heraklion, Crete, Greece, a densely built urban area. Local meteorological data and data from an Eddy Covariance flux tower installed in the city center are used for the model simulation and evaluation. Five different scenarios are tested by replacing the city’s roofs and pavements with green infrastructure, i.e., trees and grass, and water bodies. The NBS impact evaluation is based on the changes of air temperature above 2m from the ground, relative humidity and energy fluxes. A decrease of the air temperature is revealed with the highest reduction (2.3%) occurring when the pavements are replaced with grass for all scenarios. The reduction of the air temperature is followed by a decrease in turbulent sensible heat flux. For almost all cases, an increase of the relative humidity is noticed, accompanied by a considerable increase of the turbulent latent heat flux. Therefore, NBS in cities change the energy balance significantly and modify the urban environment for the citizens' benefit.
Highlights
Due to the increase of the population in cities [1,2], the deep understanding of the driving forces that influence the urban environment is of major importance
Urbanization impacts the environment in several ways [3], affecting the urban climate and making cities potentially vulnerable
A natural hazard appears to be exacerbated from the urban form that contains factors such as urban surface cover, urban fabric, and surface structure [4]
Summary
Due to the increase of the population in cities [1,2], the deep understanding of the driving forces that influence the urban environment is of major importance. Urbanization impacts the environment in several ways [3], affecting the urban climate and making cities potentially vulnerable. The type of surface cover in urban areas can increase the in-surface runoff and sensible heat flux and reduce the evaporation to the boundary layer of an urban area compared to a naturally vegetated area. The implications of the changes in urban surface cover impact human comfort, flooding, and pollutant dispersion mixing of the boundary layer. Even though such fluxes are not measured, they are very important for the local authorities' political management and decision-making on a spatial scale, whether at the neighborhood, block, or city level [5]
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