Author
Julia Hidalgo
Other affiliations: University of Vigo, University of Toulouse, Charles III University of Madrid
Bio: Julia Hidalgo is an academic researcher from Centre national de la recherche scientifique. The author has contributed to research in topics: Urban climate & Urban heat island. The author has an hindex of 17, co-authored 51 publications receiving 1230 citations. Previous affiliations of Julia Hidalgo include University of Vigo & University of Toulouse.
Papers
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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill1, Norwich University2, University of Hamburg3, The Chinese University of Hong Kong4, University of Cyprus5, University College Dublin6, Purdue University7, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology8, University of São Paulo9, Sun Yat-sen University10, Ghent University11, University of Kansas12, China Meteorological Administration13, National Center for Atmospheric Research14, University of Reading15
TL;DR: The World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) as mentioned in this paper is an international community-based initiative to acquire and disseminate climate relevant data on the physical geographies of cities for modeling and analysis purposes.
Abstract: The World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) is an international community-based initiative to acquire and disseminate climate relevant data on the physical geographies of cities for modeling and analysis purposes. The current lacuna of globally consistent information on cities is a major impediment to urban climate science toward informing and developing climate mitigation and adaptation strategies at urban scales. WUDAPT consists of a database and a portal system; its database is structured into a hierarchy representing different levels of detail, and the data are acquired using innovative protocols that utilize crowdsourcing approaches, Geowiki tools, freely accessible data, and building typology archetypes. The base level of information (L0) consists of local climate zone (LCZ) maps of cities; each LCZ category is associated with a range of values for model-relevant surface descriptors (roughness, impervious surface cover, roof area, building heights, etc.). Levels 1 (L1) and 2 (L2) will provide specific intra-urban values for other relevant descriptors at greater precision, such as data morphological forms, material composition data, and energy usage. This article describes the status of the WUDAPT project and demonstrates its potential value using observations and models. As a community-based project, other researchers are encouraged to participate to help create a global urban database of value to urban climate scientists.
244 citations
TL;DR: In this article, an urban weather generator (UWG) is proposed to calculate air temperatures inside urban canyons from measurements at an operational weather station located in an open area outside a city.
Abstract: The increase in air temperature produced by urbanization, a phenomenon known as the urban heat island (UHI) effect, is often neglected in current building energy simulation practices. The UHI effect can have an impact on the energy consumption of buildings, especially those with low internal heat gains or with an inherent close interaction with the outdoor environment (e.g. naturally-ventilated buildings). This paper presents an urban weather generator (UWG) to calculate air temperatures inside urban canyons from measurements at an operational weather station located in an open area outside a city. The model can be used alone or integrated into existing programmes in order to account for the UHI effect in building energy simulations. The UWG is evaluated against field data from Basel (Switzerland) and Toulouse (France). The error of UWG predictions stays within the range of air temperature variability observed in different locations of the same urban area.
230 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors introduce a systemic modelling approach to the problem of how best to adapt cities is especially challenging as urban areas will evolve as the climate changes, and examine adaptation strategies for cities requires a strong interdisciplinary approach involving urban planners, architects, meteorologists, building engineers, economists, and social scientists.
Abstract: Societies have to both reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and undertake adaptation measures to limit the negative impacts of global warming on the population, the economy and the environment. Examining how best to adapt cities is especially challenging as urban areas will evolve as the climate changes. Thus, examining adaptation strategies for cities requires a strong interdisciplinary approach involving urban planners, architects, meteorologists, building engineers, economists, and social scientists. Here we introduce a systemic modelling approach to the problem.
Our four-step methodology consists of: first, defining interdisciplinary scenarios; second, simulating the long-term evolution of cities on the basis of socio-economic and land-use models; third, calculating impacts with physical models (such as TEB), and; finally, calculating the indicators that quantify the effect of different adaptation policies. In the examples presented here, urban planning strategies are shown to have unexpected influence on city expansion in the long term. Moreover, the Urban Heat Island should be taken into account in operational estimations of building energy demands. Citizens’ practices seem to be an efficient lever for reducing energy consumption in buildings.
Interdisciplinary systemic modelling appears well suited to the evaluation of several adaptation strategies for a very broad range of topics.
146 citations
Central Statistical Office1, University of Augsburg2, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven3, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill4, Ghent University5, University of Coimbra6, University of Szeged7, Centre national de la recherche scientifique8, Arizona State University9, University of Hong Kong10, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis11, Monash University12, Purdue University13
TL;DR: The protocol by which LCZ maps generated by different members of the community are produced and evaluated is outlined, which supports the assumption that the current level 0 products are already of sufficient quality for certain applications.
Abstract: The World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) project has grown out of the need for better information on the form and function of cities globally. Cities are described using Local Climate Zones (LCZ), which are associated with a range of key urban climate model parameters and thus can serve as inputs to high resolution urban climate models. We refer to this as level 0 data for each city. The LCZ level 0 product is produced using freely available Landsat imagery, crowdsourced training areas from the community, and the open source SAGA software. This paper outlines the protocol by which LCZ maps generated by different members of the community are produced and evaluated. In particular, the quality assessment comprises cross-validation, review, and cross-comparison with other data sets. To date, the results from the different quality assessments show that the LCZ maps are generally of moderate quality, i.e. 50–60% overall accuracy (OA), but this is much higher when considering all built-up classes together or using weights that take the morphological and climatic similarity of certain classes into account. The training data contributed by researchers from around the world also vary in quality and in the interpretation of the landscape, which affects the final quality of the LCZ maps. The acceptable level of quality needed will depend heavily on the application of the data. However, initial modelling studies that use the level 0 products as inputs showed improved performance in simulating the urban climate when replacing the default surface descriptions with the WUDAPT level 0 data. This is also promising for the application of level 0 data in regional and global climate and weather models and supports the assumption that the current level 0 products are already of sufficient quality for certain applications. Moreover, there are various ongoing developments to improve the methods used to produce LCZ maps and their accuracy.
138 citations
TL;DR: The authors showed that cities are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather episodes, which are expected to increase with climate change, and that cities also influence their own local climate, for example, through the relative relative...
Abstract: Cities are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather episodes, which are expected to increase with climate change. Cities also influence their own local climate, for example, through the relative ...
86 citations
Cited by
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University of Leicester1, Earth System Research Laboratory2, Centre national de la recherche scientifique3, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences4, Norwegian Institute for Air Research5, United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs6, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology7, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis8, Danish Meteorological Institute9, Paul Scherrer Institute10, ETH Zurich11, University of California, Irvine12, University of Leeds13, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki14, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne15, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory16, National Center for Atmospheric Research17, Stockholm University18, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology19, Forschungszentrum Jülich20, University of Oslo21, Max Planck Society22, University of Helsinki23, Joseph Fourier University24, Blaise Pascal University25, University of York26, University of Toulouse27, University of Urbino28, University of Manchester29, National University of Ireland, Galway30, University of Edinburgh31, Heidelberg University32, University of East Anglia33, Weizmann Institute of Science34, Chalmers University of Technology35, Norwegian Meteorological Institute36, Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands37, University of Stuttgart38, VU University Amsterdam39
TL;DR: A review of the state of scientific understanding in relation to global and regional air quality is outlined in this article, in terms of emissions, processing and transport of trace gases and aerosols.
760 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a combination of observational and modeling analyses indicates synergies between urban heat islands and heat waves, and the added heat stress in cities will be even higher than the sum of the background urban heat island effect and the heat wave effect.
Abstract: Cities are well known to be hotter than the rural areas that surround them; this phenomenon is called the urbanheatisland.Heatwavesareexcessivelyhotperiodsduringwhichtheairtemperaturesofbothurbanand rural areas increase significantly. However,whether urban andrural temperaturesrespondin the same wayto heat waves remains a critical unanswered question. In this study, a combination of observational and modeling analyses indicates synergies between urban heat islands and heat waves. That is, not only do heat waves increase the ambient temperatures, but they also intensify the difference between urban and rural temperatures. As a result, the added heat stress in cities will be even higher than the sum of the background urban heat island effect and the heat wave effect. Results presented here also attribute this added impact of heat waves on urban areas to the lack of surface moisture in urban areas and the low wind speed associated with heat waves. Given that heat waves are projected to become more frequent and that urban populations are substantiallyincreasing,thesefindingsunderlinetheseriousheat-related healthrisksfacingurbanresidentsin the twenty-first century. Adaptation and mitigation strategies will require joint efforts to reinvent the city, allowing for more green spaces and lesser disruption of the natural water cycle.
582 citations
TL;DR: The analysis suggests that the evapotranspiration-based cooling influence of both green and bluespace is primarily relevant for urban canopy-layer conditions, and that tree-dominated greenspace offers the greatest heat stress relief when it is most needed.
572 citations
Western Kentucky University1, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences2, University of Nebraska–Lincoln3, Purdue University4, University of Queensland5, Pennsylvania State University6, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere7, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada8, John Deere9, Oak Ridge National Laboratory10, University of Alabama in Huntsville11, University of Delaware12, University of Georgia13, Chinese Academy of Sciences14, University of Colorado Boulder15, Texas A&M University16, Tuskegee University17
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide an overview and synthesis of some of the most notable types of land cover changes and their impacts on climate, including agriculture, deforestation and afforestation, desertification, and urbanization.
Abstract: Land cover changes (LCCs) play an important role in the climate system. Research over recent decades highlights the impacts of these changes on atmospheric temperature, humidity, cloud cover, circulation, and precipitation. These impacts range from the local- and regional-scale to sub-continental and global-scale. It has been found that the impacts of regional-scale LCC in one area may also be manifested in other parts of the world as a climatic teleconnection. In light of these findings, this article provides an overview and synthesis of some of the most notable types of LCC and their impacts on climate. These LCC types include agriculture, deforestation and afforestation, desertification, and urbanization. In addition, this article provides a discussion on challenges to, and future research directions in, assessing the climatic impacts of LCC.
560 citations
University of Queensland1, Hebrew University of Jerusalem2, University of Potsdam3, Leibniz Association4, Sun Yat-sen University5, University of Exeter6, Complutense University of Madrid7, Spanish National Research Council8, Universities Space Research Association9, Wuhan University10, University of Haifa11, Marshall Space Flight Center12, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere13, University of Maryland, College Park14, Goddard Space Flight Center15, Colorado School of Mines16, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration17
TL;DR: In this article, the authors outline the historical development of night-time optical sensors up to the current state-of-the-art sensors, highlight various applications of night light data, discuss the special challenges associated with remote sensing of night lights with a focus on the limitations of current sensors, and provide an outlook for the future of remote sensing.
369 citations