The Human Influence Experiment (Part 2): Guidelines for Improved Mapping of Local Climate Zones Using a Supervised Classification

Marie-Leen Verdonck,Daniel Fenner,Benjamin Bechtel,Christoph Beck,François Leconte,Arjan Droste,Matthias Demuzere,Frieke Van Coillie,Oscar Brousse

doi:10.3390/urbansci3010027

Abstract

Since 2012, Local Climate Zones (LCZ) have been used for numerous studies related to urban environment. In 2015, this use amplified because a method to map urban areas in LCZs was introduced by the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT). However in 2017, the first HUMan INfluence EXperiment showed that these maps often have poor or low quality. Since the maps are used in different applications such as urban modelling and land use/land cover change studies, it is of the utmost importance to improve mapping accuracies and a second experiment was launched. In HUMINEX 2.0, the focus lies on providing guidelines on the use of the mapping protocol based on the results of both HUMINEX 1.0 and 2.0. The results showed that: (1) it is important to follow the mapping protocol as strictly as possible, (2) a reasonable amount of time should be spent on the mapping procedure, (3) all users should perform a driving test, and (4) training area sets should be stored in the WUDAPT database for other users.

Highlights

Mapping of urban areas in relation to their urban climate is gaining interest in the global research community [1]
The present study aims at presenting results of the second phase of HUMINEX, which mainly aimed at overcoming the limitations of HUMINEX 1.0
Based on the results of both phases, this study aims at providing guidelines for operators of the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) level-0 methodology to obtain

Summary

Introduction

Mapping of urban areas in relation to their urban climate is gaining interest in the global research community [1]. In 2012, the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) scheme was introduced by Stewart and Oke [2]. 17 zones, divided into ten built and seven natural land cover types (Figure 1). These zones portray a unique air temperature regime at screen height, under similar atmospheric conditions [3] and could serve as a global urban classification scheme. Before 2015, the LCZ scheme was mainly used as a conceptual framework to evaluate in-situ measurement sites related to urban heat island

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion