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Sky view factor calculations and its application in urban heat island studies

Dirksen, M., Ronda, R. J., Theeuwes, N. E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9277-8551 and Pagani, G. A. (2019) Sky view factor calculations and its application in urban heat island studies. Urban Climate, 30. 100498. ISSN 2212-0955

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To link to this item DOI: 10.1016/j.uclim.2019.100498

Abstract/Summary

The sky view factor (SVF) is essential to describe the urban climatology at scales below 100m. This proxy for net radiation depends on the height of the obstacles in its surroundings. The SVF was calculated from a rasterized point cloud height dataset (with 6 − 10 points per m2). The resulting SVF depends on grid-resolution, search radius and number of directions. Previous research related the diurnal maximum urban heat island (UHI) of the canopy layer to the diurnal temperature range, solar irradiance, wind speed, vegetation fraction and SVF. The goal of this study is to determine the sensitivity of the SVF and the impact on the UHI. Within the Netherlands a test area of 70km2 was selected, including: urban areas, meadows and forests. There is a high sensitivity for grid-resolution. Therefore the impact of the SVFs grid resolution on the maximum UHI is explored. Results show that the fourth largest city within the Netherlands, Utrecht, has a mean diurnal maximum UHI of 3.1 °C using a 1m SVF resolution. But, with a 3m SVF resolution the UHI is on average 0.6 °C lower. This highlights the significance of a fine grid resolution which can capture houses, alleys and trees.

Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
ID Code:85498
Publisher:Elsevier

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