City Planning Research Articles

Land Use, Travel Patterns and Gender in Barcelona: A Sequence Analysis Approach

Transport systems are essential for the path toward sustainable urbanisation and the transition to more sustainable living. Recently, European cities have undergone substantial changes, and suburbanisation is posing new challenges. Suburban areas are often more affordable in terms of housing, but these neighbourhoods tend to be car-oriented. This leads to higher commuter costs, immobility, transport and time poverty, pollution, higher accident rates and a lack of social interactions. To offer sustainable mobility options to citizens, we must comprehensively understand, together with their individual characteristics, their specific mobility practices and the built environment where they live. This study is centred on the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, which has a public transport network that covers its entire area. The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between travel behaviour, transport mode use, individual characteristics and built environment characteristics in the place of residence using detailed information sources. Herein, we used data from the 2018 to 2021 annual travel survey conducted in the Barcelona region, together with land use and sociodemographic information. Our findings suggest that transport policies have encouraged sustainable mobility practices, particularly in the centre of Barcelona. Despite the positive results, considerable disparities exist between the inner and outer city, with a notable decline in sustainable mobility practices in the latter, due to the uneven distribution of basic services and uneven provision of public transport, together with lower density areas. Our results demonstrate that this uneven distribution reduces the available sequence profiles of inhabitants. In conclusion, the promotion of sustainable mobility policies necessitates further advances in transport, city and land-use planning that consider equity, gender, the socioeconomic profiles of citizens and mixed urban planning.

SAR-driven flood inventory and multi-factor ensemble susceptibility modelling using machine learning frameworks

Climate change has substantially increased both the occurrence and intensity of flood events, particularly in the Indian subcontinent, exacerbating threats to human populations and economic infrastructure. The present research employed novel ML models—LR, SVM, RF, XGBoost, DNN, and Stacking Ensemble—developed in the Python environment and leveraged 18 flood-influencing factors to delineate flood-prone areas with precision. A comprehensive flood inventory, obtained from Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, provided empirical data for entire model training and validation. Model performance was assessed using precision, recall, F1-score, accuracy, and ROC-AUC metrics. The results highlighted Stacking Ensemble’s superior predictive ability (0.965), followed closely by, XGBoost (0.934), DNN (0.929), RF (0.925), LR (0.921), and SVM (0.920) respectively, establishing the feasibility of ML applications in disaster management. The maps depicting susceptibility to flooding generated by the current research provide actionable insights for decision-makers, city planners, and authorities responsible for disaster management, guiding infrastructural and community resilience enhancements against flood risks.

Qualitative exploration of determinants of active mobility and social participation in Urban neighborhoods: individual perceptions over objective factors?

BackgroundUrban neighborhood environments play an important role in facilitating or hindering residents to engage in active mobility and social participation. However, while there is much quantitative research, in-depth knowledge that contextualizes residents’ subjective perceptions of barriers and facilitators of active mobility and social participation is still insufficient. Therefore, a qualitative approach was used to collect subjectively perceived barriers and facilitators of active mobility and social participation of residents from different neighborhoods with objectively determined high vs. low walkability. Furthermore, to better understand (non) concordance of objective environmental characterizations and actual levels of behavior, low and high walkability neighborhood-specific barriers, proposed improvements, and particularities that determine (non) engagement in active mobility and social participation were explored.MethodsThree focus groups (N = 6, N = 6, and N = 5) with 17 participants (7 women, 10 men) aged 21–64 (mean age 43.4 ± 14,6 years) were conducted utilizing a pre-structured interview guideline. Participants lived in 11 different neighborhoods with either high or low objectively determined walkability. The focus groups were transcribed verbatim, followed by a thematic analysis of the content with deductive and inductive code categories, utilizing the MAXQDA software.ResultsNotable was the consensus of many perceived barriers and facilitators of active mobility and social participation along with their assignability to the same context (points-of-interest, infrastructure; safety, communication, community; topography, physical compositions, weather, aesthetics; personal / individual attitudes, influences, evaluations). Another main finding was that high and low walkability neighborhood-specific particularities were revealed that are in contrast to some objective characterizations of walkability: For example, too high density can inhibit active mobility, and too many options can inhibit social participation.ConclusionsThe consensus of many barriers and facilitators of active mobility and social participation suggests that valuable synergies could be created by coordinating interventions aiming to promote both active mobility and social participation in urban neighborhoods. Also, considering subjective perceptions of residents helps to identify neighborhood-specific factors that determine (non) engagement in active mobility and social participation. The findings can help city planners and public health officials improve the promotion of active mobility and social participation in the creation of health-enhancing urban neighborhoods.

Research into the Influence Mechanisms of Visual-Comfort and Landscape Indicators of Urban Green Spaces

Urban green spaces play a crucial role in providing social services and enhancing residents’ mental health. It is essential for sustainable urban planning to explore the relationship between urban green spaces and human perceptions, particularly their visual comfort. However, most current research has analyzed green spaces using two-dimensional indicators (remote sensing), which often overlook human visual perceptions. This study combined two-dimensional and three-dimensional methods to evaluate urban green spaces. Additionally, the study employed machine learning to quantify residents’ visual comfort in green-space environments and explored the relationship between green spaces and human visual perceptions. The results indicated that Kitakyushu exhibited a moderate FCV and an extremely low Green View Index (GVI). Yahatanishi-ku was characterized as having the highest visual comfort. Tobata-ku demonstrated the lowest visual comfort. Natural, GVI, openness, enclosure, vegetation diversity, landscape diversity, and NDBI were positively correlated with visual comfort. FCV and ENVI were negatively correlated with visual comfort. Vegetation diversity had the most impact on improving visual comfort. By integrating remote sensing and street-view data, this study introduces a methodology to ensure a more holistic assessment of green spaces. Urban planners could use it to better identify areas with insufficient green space or areas that require improvement in terms of green-space quality. Meanwhile, it could be helpful in providing valuable input for formulating more effective green-space policies and improving overall urban environmental quality. The study provides a scientific foundation for urban planners to improve the planning and construction of healthy and sustainable cities.

Refined Identification of Urban Functional Zones Integrating Multisource Data Features: A Case Study of Lanzhou, China

Identifying urban functional zones is one of the important foundational activities for urban renewal and the development of high-quality urban areas. Efficient and accurate identification methods for urban functional zones are significant for smart city planning and industrial layout optimization. However, existing studies have not adequately considered the impact of the interactions between human activities and geographical space provision on the delineation of urban functional zones. Therefore, from the perspective of integrating the spatiotemporal characteristics of human activities with the distribution of urban functional facilities, by incorporating mobile signaling, POI (point of interest), and building outline data, we propose a multifactorial weighted kernel density model that integrates ‘human activity–land feature area–public awareness’ to delineate urban functional zones quantitatively. The results show that the urban functional zones in the central city area of Lanzhou are primarily characterized by dominant single functional zones nested within mixed functional zones, forming a spatial pattern of ‘single–mixed’ synergistic development. Mixed function zones are widely distributed in the center of Lanzhou City. However, the area accounted for a relatively small proportion, the overall degree of functional mixing is not high, and the inter-district differences are obvious. The confusion matrix showed 85% accuracy and a Kappa coefficient of 0.83.

Sustainable Mobility as a Service: A Scientometric Review in the Context of Agenda 2030

City planners are facing an emergency to develop, promote, and implement actions that allow the mobility needs of people and businesses in cities (and their surroundings) to be satisfied to assure a better quality of life. Among the different actions to promote, there is public transport, which should be the cornerstone of sustainable urban mobility. The only way to achieve the transition from private to public is by integrating services into a multimodal network and then encouraging interchange between different modes of transportation. In this context, the development of mobility as a service (MaaS) solutions is significant, and different studies have been developed in recent years. The paper thus introduces a scientometric review of such a topic in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030. The study focuses on the current state of MaaS implementation, trends, and research gaps, with an in-depth analysis of emerging themes, based on 819 documents selected from the WoS and Scopus databases. Introducing the database, and research methodology, an accurate interpretation of the data generated by the bibliometric analysis, and the primary evaluation parameters are outlined. The identified studies have been then categorized into three thematic groups with the intention of offering a comprehensive study that identifies the shortcomings and difficulties in the research carried out in these areas up to today. Particular attention is paid to how this research relates to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Determination of Warehouse Locations for Logistics Services in an Integrated City Spatial System (Case Study in Bekasi City)

Human needs consisting of clothing, food, shelter and medicines will increase every year and require services. There are many planning changes in the digital era, so it is necessary to study the location theory of logistics service storage warehouses in the city spatial system. This study aims to identify the characteristics of existing logistics services, examine the determination of the location of existing logistics service storage warehouses and become an opportunity for logistics service players who wish to be located in the region. This study uses location theory for location determination, nearest Neighbour ratio analysis and analytical hierarchical process in determining the criteria and alternative locations for logistics service storage warehouses. The results of the analysis in the identification of characteristics, namely location, company operations, company management, settlement patterns affect the distribution pattern of logistics services. Then the more dominant criterion is the market with the value obtained (0.542) because in carrying out any business activity, you have to see who is the market for the business activities being carried out. At the location of the case study as a sample, namely Jatiraden (0.618) which has the most potential according to criteria related to market, cost, human resources, infrastructure and institutions. The conclusions obtained for operational matters using three-wheeled vehicles in the distribution of logistics services are an alternative in distributing uniform residential areas. More loads and easier mobility because the accessibility of vehicles in uniform residential patterns tends to be wide. Suggestions that can be conveyed in determining the location and making any business activity must be seen from the urban area planning. So that stakeholders can refer to the city's spatial planning system, so that policies made by the government can be compatible and aligned with logistics service companies.

The X-Minute City: Analysing Accessibility to Essential Daily Destinations by Active Mobility in Seville

The concept of the “x-minute city” emphasises connected, mixed-use, and functionally dense urban areas where residents can access most daily necessities within a short walk or bike ride. By promoting proximity to essential destinations and sustainable transport options, this approach reduces the need for extensive travel and minimises environmental impact. This paper analyses the readiness of cities to function as x-minute cities and identifies necessary interventions. Using a reproducible and scalable methodology based on open data and software, the study assesses the accessibility of key urban amenities within specified timeframes. Cumulative accessibility metrics are calculated for different destination categories, considering both walking and cycling. In the case of Seville, accessibility requirements outlined in policy documents are already met for many essential services, particularly public facilities. The study identifies neighbourhoods that excel in accessibility and others that require improvement in adhering to x-minute city principles. The methodology and findings can inform planning and policy decisions in other cities, guiding efforts to enhance amenity provision, test accessibility scenarios, and target intervention areas.

Changes in Climatological Variables at Stations around Lake Erie and Lake Michigan

Climatological variables undergo changes over time, and it is important to understand such dynamic changes at global, regional, and local levels. While global and regional studies are common in the study of climate, such studies at a local level are not as common. The aim of this article is to study temporal changes in precipitation, snowfall, and temperature variables at specific stations located on the rims of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan. The identification of changes is carried out by applying change-point analysis to precipitation, snowfall, and temperature data from Buffalo, Erie, and Cleveland stations located on the rim of Lake Erie and at Chicago, Milwaukee, and Green Bay stations located on the rim of Lake Michigan. We adopt mainly the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) method to identify the number and locations of change points, and then we apply the generalized likelihood ratio statistic to test for the statistical significance of the identified change points. We follow this up by finding 95% confidence intervals for those change points that were found to be statistically significant. The results from the analysis show that there are significant changes in precipitation, snowfall, and temperature variables at all six rim stations. Changes in precipitation show consistently significant increases, whereas there is no similar consistency in snowfall increases. Temperature increases are generally quite sharp, and they occur consistently around 1985. Overall, upon combining the amounts of changes from all six stations, the average amount of change in annual average temperature is found to be 0.96 °C, the average percentage of change in precipitation is 16%, and the average percentage of change in snowfall is 17%. The changing local climatic conditions identified in the study are important for local city planners, as well as residents, so that they can be well prepared for changing climatic scenarios.

Participatory Planning in the Special Allocation Fund Preparation Process in Sleman Regency, Special Region of Yogyakarta

The theory and practice of urban planning have both shown a significant amount of attention in regards to community participation. Numerous studies have added to the growing body of literature highlighting the benefits of community participation in city planning and management. On the other hand, the literature on participation contains just a handful of theory-based empirical studies that investigate the role of community participation in the planning process of special fund programs in the Special Region of Yogyakarta. This research method uses quantitative analysis involving data collection using probability sampling techniques to collect data from 64 respondents. After that, a survey was conducted with the help of a questionnaire that was given out to respondents in order to obtain sample data. After that, the data that was gathered were examined by means of multiple regression analysis, which was carried out with the assistance of the SPSS Statistics 25 program. The results of this study indicate that knowledge, awareness, social media, political culture, and education have a positive and significant effect on community participation. This shows that active community participation in the special fund preparation program in the Special Region of Yogyakarta can be more targeted according to community needs.

Exploring the socioeconomic factors affecting green cities development

PurposeThis paper explored the socioeconomic factors affecting green cities development. Extant literature have highlighted green cities as a major path towards sustainability in the construction industry but very little is known on the socioeconomic aspect of green cities and its bid in promoting sustainability in the construction industry; hence, the premise of this study which highlights the socioeconomic factors affecting green cities development in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachA comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the socioeconomic factors affecting green cities. A quantitative research strategy was adopted to collect primary data from respondents who have the requisite understanding and knowledge in green cities using questionnaires. The data gathered was then analysed using descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis viz principal component analysis.FindingsThe socioeconomic factors affecting green city development comprised: Green support mechanisms (i.e. innovation and technology, green city planning (urban planning), stakeholder engagement, awareness, city planning (transportation) and environmental regulations); green inhibitors (i.e. population, culture, housing and policy implementation); green market and finance (i.e. digital finance, green market mechanism, green investment finance, risks and uncertainties, income levels of clients). It was evident that socioeconomic factors are significant to the development of green cities in Ghana and hence policy makers and various stakeholders should prioritize socioeconomic factors in the bid to achieve sustainability through green cities in the construction industry.Originality/valueThis paper presents a foremost and comprehensive study on the socioeconomic factors affecting green cities in Ghana. The study results showed that even though the path to sustainability in green cities has pivoted mainly on environmental factors, socioeconomic factors are also significant to green city development, hence, policy makers and the construction industry should keenly consider the socioeconomic factors affecting green city development in the bid towards sustainability for cities.

An ecological dilemma, novel sustainable ideas for Istanbul examining zoning regulation for green-areas and housing

This research delves into the evolution of Istanbul’s urban agenda, which has become increasingly intricate due to recent challenges. The city's planning paradigm has undergone a discernible shift, with heightened attention concerns like seismic resilience, sustainability, and the climate-change. The planning projections for the city have experienced significant changes, by the earthquakes 1999 and 2023, climate-change, and the pandemic in 2020. Although the pandemic is considered temporary, it has significant in bringing sustainable matters like living airier, greener areas, back to the city planning. In response to the latest challenges, particularly the earthquake, the city confronted an ecological dilemma, prompting proposal to relocate new housing areas to the Northern-forest. The city's northern development axis, planned a century ago by the French architect-urbanist Henri Prost, is being questioned today end to its limits for green-areas. Based on ongoing global discussion, on academical circles on the imperative, the historic city of Istanbul grapples with the contemporary problems sustainability and seismic considerations in its future planning endeavors. This study engages in discursive analyses while concurrently offering practical recommendations to address sustainability through the development of specific zoning arrangements focuses on dual research axis urban-based, and housing-based, laws, and regulations, also housing model, and typologies as missing part of the previous research. This study principally examines this problematic via zoning practices of Istanbul in the Henri Prost period from housing areas to the housing models and typologies. Also, globally, along with the new zoning, the old zoning laws, and regulations can be bring the agenda again in the context of sustainability to promote a balanced relationship between human, nature and sustainability goals. In conclusion, amid the recent challenges in the city, innovative suggestions for advanced zoning applications in pursuit of sustainability reveal a notable gap in the protection of green-areas, planning new settlements. Henri Prost’s master plans stand out for employing distinctive zoning techniques for each district, also offering specific housing models and typologies. Extending this methodology to green-areas presents a bridge the existing void. By presented potential case scenarios at the end of the study emphasizing the merits of integrating historical zoning practices into contemporary planning, it aims to stimulate discussions on holistic and forward-looking urban development strategies.

The Transition toward Smart and Sustainable Cities

Increasing population followed by uncontrolled city expansion neglected many essential criteria, resulting in management challenges, social service inequities, and worsened environmental conditions. However, this development is always ongoing and overshadows daily life. City administrators desire to implement smart cities to address a wide variety of prevalent issues in metropolitan areas. This study aims to take steps toward creating a smart city. Citizens' understanding and support for a project in a city are crucial to its success. The focus of this research is to examine citizens' awareness of smart cities and their importance in helping city managers, urban planners, and architects in improved planning to realize the vision of a smart city. This article comprehensively explains the smart city by compiling and evaluating relevant facts. Also, numerous smart cities throughout the world have been researched and compared to gain insight. Furthermore, being the most important part of a smart city, the level of public knowledge about "smart cities" in Iran through a survey distribution has been analyzed. This study has the potential to create new insight into city development. The findings offer novel perspectives that can be applied to the design and planning of intelligent cities.

An enhanced transit accessibility evaluation framework by integrating Public Transport Accessibility Levels (PTAL) and transit gap

Rapid urbanization has presented many challenges, notably spatial imbalances between the transit supply and demand within cities. The inequitable distribution of transit supply, which include the transit infrastructure and services, may lead to formation of areas where transit is under provisioned. This work aims to develop an enhanced framework for measuring spatial disparities in accessing transit systems by combining established concepts of Public Transport Accessibility Levels (PTAL) and transit gap. The proposed framework incorporates PTAL as a supply indicator and transit dependent population as the demand indicator while estimating the transit gap. PTAL takes into account the intricate relationship between transit infrastructure and transit services, an aspect that was overlooked by the previous studies on transit gap. Inclusion of PTAL enhances the transit gap evaluation method by offering a deeper understanding and a holistic perspective on the transit system. We demonstrate the proposed approach with an application in Singapore. Additionally, we propose a new classification system based on PTAL and transit gap to distinguish areas where high transit gap is a result of very high demand rather than poor supply. Results show that 44.82 % of the transit dependent population in Singapore lives in high transit gap area out of which 4.69 % population stays in transit desert zones, where supply is poor, and 40.13 % lives in transit stressed zone, where demand is very high. The study also developed a simple decision framework based on PTAL and transit gap scores to suggest effective policy measures for reducing the spatial disparity in transit system accessibility. The findings from the work can aid policymakers and transport planners in land-use and transport planning of cities.

Validation measurement of vehicle pass-by models for dynamic urban environments

Simulation and auralization of urban traffic noise can help city planners and residents to improve existing urban areas or plan new attractive living spaces while enabling discussions about shared auditory experiences, regardless of expertise. Evaluating street noise in the context of urban areas requires careful consideration of their urban surroundings, such as landscapes, buildings, and other structures. Obtaining measurements to validate simulations may be difficult given the variety and complexity of sounds within an urban setting. Recreating the real urban scenario on a test track, e.g., including building facades and exact source and receiver positions, helps validate simulations but also poses challenges due to varying road surfaces, weather conditions, and disturbances such as industrial or fly-over sounds. This research represents a method of bringing a measurement set-up consisting of source (e.g., vehicle), receiver (e.g., pedestrian), and surfaces (e.g., walls) to the more controlled environment of a hemi-anechoic chamber. The method is intended for the validation of previous vehicle pass-by measurements by utilizing sine sweeps with walls parked at varying distances. These environments aim to deliver more insight into the relevance of diffracted sound for configuration of urban sound simulation models.

A review of the application of continuous real-time monitoring in noise risk management

Background: In the year 2020, the Mineral's Council Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Zero Harm Forum (CEOZHF) reviewed the slow progress towards achieving the 2024 Occupational Health Milestones and agreed that there was a need to improve the current measures in place to reduce occupational diseases. Following discussions with Group Environmental Engineers, it was proposed to adopt key occupational health indicators for tracking progress through Continuous Real-Time Monitoring (CRTM) to reduce workplace exposures. Methods: A systematic review methodology was employed to gather data from reputable academic databases. Results: CRTM in Noise Risk Management enables an encompassing practical and intuitive analysis of building noise pollution with prompt alerts for poor acoustic comfort. Real-time graphical display of noise measurements, utilizing a warning signal framework, facilitated area-specific alerts and responses. Additionally, CRTM enabled the visualization of noise levels and sources through frequency analysis, contributing to noise pollution analysis for zoning and strategic planning in smart cities. Conclusions: While CRTM has been extensively applied in noise monitoring globally, its utilization in the mining industry, especially in South Africa, remains limited. This study underscores the feasibility of implementing CRTM in Noise Risk Management, emphasizing the need for further research within the mining industry.

Conceptual framework to incorporate drainage solutions in the urban open space system

Cities are increasingly dealing with challenges regarding the negative impact of rapid and mismanaged urbanization. Therefore, city planning must cope with the natural environment limitations, seeking a balance between the human activities and the well-functioning of the hydrologic cycle. This work aims to present a conceptual framework able to properly integrate the stormwater dynamics into the open spaces system in a functional way, establishing a Hydrological Interest Area, HIA, to structure urban expansion integrated into and respecting watershed natural processes. The initial step is to define a HIA, primarily consisting of open spaces that can be used for supporting urban drainage functions and to order land use in the urban expansion process. This delimitation offers the background for interpreting the watershed in three functional arches, especially covering the upstream, mid-reach and downstream areas of the basin, guiding the design of a set of flood mitigation interventions focusing on the use of Blue-Green Infrastructure. To illustrate and validate the proposed methodological framework, the design is evaluated by a flood modeling tool, using a hydrological-hydrodynamic cell-model. A case study was driven in the Bambu Watershed, a rapidly developing area in the municipality of Maricá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The proposed intervention includes an urban expansion scenario for a low impact development on flood behavior alongside with four parks: an upstream park with reservoirs, two multifunctional floodable urban parks, and a park dedicated to lagoon restoration. This plan complements riverbed modifications designed to enhance water discharge. The simulation showed significant reduction of water depths with a consequent decrease in exposure of buildings and roads, especially in the most critical region of the watershed. This framework highlights the importance of a multifunctional approach in land use and serves as a robust foundation for controlling urban expansion and proposing projects.

Виленский базар Подгале: происхождение и бытование названия<b></b>

The article is devoted to the Russian name of the oldest Vilnius covered market (lit. Halės turgus), the history of which is directly related to the ups and downs of the political life of Lithuania, important historical events, engineering and technical achievements in the field of civil engineering at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. The change in the urban landscape and the emergence of a new accent in it, the change of authorities and the dominant language in the country, specific of the motley social and speech environment in the city as a whole and on its trading floors affected the difficult history of the new name. The immediate subject of analysis was the word Подгале (Podhale), which goes back to the Polish nominative phrase Pod Halą with the reference word hala (← German Halle). Since an important object of urban infrastructure is necessarily displayed on city plans and recorded in signs to them, the article examines in detail these documentary sources from different historical periods and in different languages: Russian — from the time of the Tsarist Empire; Polish — pre-war and inter-war; Lithuanian — after the First World War. Along with the plans of the corresponding time, other sources of information are analyzed — address books and postcards with images of the object of interest to us, which to a lesser extent can claim to be historical evidence, but often reflect the actual existence of naming among townspeople. The article traces the role of the state Lithuanian language in the fate of the unofficial Russian urbanonym.

Mapping heat-related risks in Swiss cities under different urban tree scenarios

About three quarter of Swiss residents live in urban areas, and this proportion is expected to grow in future decades. An increasing number of people will therefore be exposed to urban heat, which can have adverse effects on human wellbeing, productivity and physical health.We explore the possibility to detect high-risk areas in five Swiss cities with the development of an urban heat-based risk-mapping approach. The included cities are Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich. The analysis is based on a combination of biophysical, including Landsat 8 derived Land Surface Temperature (LST), and socioeconomic data. Additionally, we assess the impact of urban trees on urban heat within the districts of these cities, helping to estimate how risk levels would change under two scenarios: one with increased tree cover (MaxTree) and another with no (NoTree) urban trees.The assessment on the impact of urban trees on heat showed that the areas with urban trees generally experience cooler temperatures compared to those without, both at the city and district levels. This underscores the positive role of urban trees in mitigating the urban heat effect.The risk mapping approach revealed a distinct spatial pattern for each city and high risk areas were identified.Generally, the high-risk areas in the analyzed cities cover the city centers and areas with high vulnerability.The ‘NoTree’ scenario showed higher risks compared to the baseline situation, illustrating that urban trees currently mitigate heat related risks in Swiss cities. The ‘MaxTree’ scenario results in lower risks, especially in the cities of Lausanne and Bern.The presented risk mapping approach, including the two idealized scenarios, can be used by policy- and decision-makers (e.g. city planners) can be a tool to determine where urban planning actions are the most urgent and where trees could be most beneficial in terms of adaptation to heat. The approach is easily adaptable and transferable to other cities, since it relies on a clear and simple methodological framework, openly available LST data, and basic socioeconomic variables at district scale that are available for many cities.

Comparison of Physically Based and Empirical Modeling of Nighttime Spatial Temperature Variability during a Heatwave in and around a City

Abstract The numerical weather prediction model HARMONIE-AROME and a multiple linear regression model (referred to in this article as the TURCLIM model after the local climate observation network) were used to model surface air temperature for 25–31 July 2018 in the City of Turku, Finland, to study their performance in urban areas and surrounding rural areas. The 0200 LT (local standard time) temperatures modeled by the HARMONIE-AROME and TURCLIM models were compared to each other and against the observed temperatures to find the model best suited for modeling the urban heat island effect and other spatial temperature variabilities during heatwaves. Observed temperatures were collected from 74 sites, representing both rural and urban environments. Both models were able to reproduce the spatial nighttime temperature variation. However, HARMONIE-AROME modeled temperatures were systematically warmer than the observed temperatures in stable conditions. Spatial differences between the models were mostly related to the physiographic characteristics: for the urban areas, HARMONIE-AROME modeled on average 1.4°C higher temperatures than the TURCLIM model, while for other land-cover types, the average difference was 0.51°C at maximum. The TURCLIM model performed well when the explanatory variables were able to incorporate enough information on the surrounding physiography. Respectively, systematic cold or warm bias occurred in the areas in which the thermophysically relevant physiography was lacking or was only partly captured by the model. Significance Statement As more and more people are living in an urban environment, the demand for accurate urban climate modeling is growing. This study aims to understand the differences between the numerical weather prediction and multiple linear regression modeling and their limitations in modeling surface air temperature in subkilometer scale. The case study shows that models are capable of predicting the spatial variation of 0200 LT nighttime temperature during a heatwave in a high-latitude coastal city. Both models are therefore valuable assets for city planners who need accurate information about the impacts of the physiography on the urban climate. The results indicate that to improve the performance of the models, more accurate physiographic description and higher spatial resolution of the models are needed.