Mapping Urban Landscapes and their Climate Effects

Chinese University of Hong Kong, 12 to 13 December 2015

Mapping Urban Landscapes and their Climate Effects will introduce the WUDAPT project, show how urban parameters can be acquired and demonstrate the value of these data for climate-based urban planning. Our focus will be on the rapidly growing cities of China but we will also compare their emerging forms with those of other cities in Europe and the Americas.

The basic structure of cities is captured using the Local Climate Zones (LCZs) scheme, which categorizes natural and urban landscapes into distinctive types, each of which is recognizable from aerial and satellite imagery. Each LCZ is associated with a unique combination of urban parameter values that capture aspects of urban form and function that regulate the micro-climate. By itself, a LCZ map of a city provides a standard, common means for characterizing cities and can improve the data inputs needed to run urban climate models. Moreover, the LCZ map also provides a sampling framework for gathering more detailed urban parameter information. Further detailed data collection efforts will use a citizen science approach to gather information on building materials and function, landscape morphology and vegetation types. The ultimate goal of the WUDAPT project is to develop a detailed, open access, urban database for all major cities in the world, which will have value for many applications including planning for climate resilience, energy modeling, greenhouse gas assessment, etc.

The structure of the workshop reflects the design of the WUDAPT project. The first day is devoted to an understanding of the character of the urban landscape using the LCZ system and a demonstration of how LCZ maps are generated. The outcome of this work will be descriptions of the physical geographies of cities in climate-relevant terms. The second day is focused on the use of these data to make informed decisions about the form and functions of cities using simple models.

To register for the workshop, click here.