Modelling the Efficiency of Nature-Based Solutions to Decrease Extreme Summer-time Heat in Dense Urban Environment on Example of Vienna, Austria

Žuvela-Aloise, Maja and Hahn, Claudia and Bügelmayer-Blaschek, Marianne and Schneider, Martin (2023) Modelling the Efficiency of Nature-Based Solutions to Decrease Extreme Summer-time Heat in Dense Urban Environment on Example of Vienna, Austria. LET IT GROW, LET US PLAN, LET IT GROW. Nature-based Solutions for Sustainable Resilient Smart Green and Blue Cities. Proceedings of REAL CORP 2023, 28th International Conference on Urban Development, Regional Planning and Information Society. pp. 1051-1056. ISSN 2521-3938

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Abstract

Densely built urban environments experience extremely high temperatures during summer heat waves. Nature-based Solutions (NbS), such as increasing green infrastructure by replacing sealed surfaces with vegetation, installing green roofs and especially planting trees can ameliorate severe heat conditions by providing cooling through evapotranspiration and shading. This study analyses the effectiveness of NbS to reduce the summer maximum temperatures in Vienna using an urban climate modelling approach that takes into account NbS performance criteria on micro-scale and upscales the application of NbS for the entire city. Using existing data of the Viennese urban structure, status-quo urban climate simulations were performed. Further, based on evidence on NbS performance criteria different climate scenarios for implementation of NbS were designed. A densely-built area in Vienna, for which the possibility of implementation of NbS was analysed, was chosen as a study area for micro-scale simulations. The adaptation measures included: 1) reduction of soil sealing, 2) increase in surface reflectivity of sealed surfaces, 3) implementation of green roofs, 4) new park areas with trees and low vegetation and 5) a combination of all NbS. The modelling simulations were performed for a representative clear-sky heat day for NbS scenario first for the selected area with the ENVI-met model and later for the entire city of Vienna with the MUKLIMO_3 model. The extent of NbS was proportionally scaled for the city-level simulations and the measures were applied for all densely-built areas in the city. The results show the highest cooling effect for the combination of NbS with a similar intensity of cooling found both in microscale and city-scale simulations. In case of city-scale simulations, the results show mean difference in daily maximum temperature of about 0.1°C and maximum difference of about 1.4°C. The effect is strongest in the densely-built areas where the measures were applied. However, the cooling effect can be detected in the surrounding areas as well. The robustness of the urban scale results was tested using different modelling setups, varying the parameters describing land-use properties, such as variations in land use mapping, soil sealing, building density and tree coverage. Different representation of land use characteristics in the model leads to variations in spatial pattern of heat load. The cooling effect also varies spatially, dependent on the possibility to implement the adaptation measure. However, the results confirm similar efficiency of NbS regardless of the background data and method applied.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	urban heat island, urban climate, nature-based solutions, microclimate, climate modelling
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HM Sociology T Technology > TH Building construction
Depositing User:	REAL CORP Administrator
Date Deposited:	03 Oct 2023 08:48
Last Modified:	04 Oct 2023 17:40
URI:	http://repository.corp.at/id/eprint/1008

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