Housing projects design in cities should be based on an understanding of the urban local climate; selection of fitto-purpose thermal comfort models and implementation corresponding design guidelines and best practices. In this context, we developed an analysis tool for bioclimatic design recommendations for architects in Madagascar. The aim of this tool is to support the decision-making process of architects and urban planners by proposing environmental design guidelines for Antananarivo and Toamasina, the two largest cities on the island. Firstly, we performed a climate zoning of the island based on altitude, solar irradiation and dry bulb temperature. Secondly, we developed a bioclimatic analysis based on temperature and humidity levels. The results show that ASHRAE adaptive comfort model is the best model for both cities because it can tolerate higher humidity limits of up to 80% or more. The natural comfort potential varies from 22 in Antananarivo to 45% in Toamasina. Results can be used to create informative bioclimatic analysis visualisations to better assess climate and determine thermal comfort models for other cities in hot-humid climates. The capabilities of the tool allow architects and urban planners to better understand the climate and propose practical design guidance.

BackgroundGalicia, in northwest Spain, experiences warm summers and winters. However, the higher relative humidity that prevails the whole year through and the location of the summer hot points are related to real weather heat stroke in the hottest season. However, Planet Global Heating was recently analyzed for the climate in Galicia. Climate change was found to be able to trigger effects that involve a new situation with new potential regions of risk. In this paper, 50 weather stations were selected to sample the weather conditions in this humid region, over the last 10 years. From these results, new regions with a potential for heat stroke risk in the next 20 years were identified using the humidex index.ResultsResults reveal that during the last 10 years, the winter season presents more comfortable conditions, whereas the summer season presents the highest humidex value. Further, the higher relative humidity throughout the whole year reveals that the humidex index clearly depends upon the outdoor temperature.ConclusionsGlobal Planet Heating shows a definite effect on the outdoor comfort conditions reaching unbearable degrees in the really hottest zones. Therefore, this effect will clearly influence tourism and risk prevention strategies in these areas.

In the research aim is to evaluate the Jennes algorithm for landform classification in salt dome of Korsia of Darab plain, Iran. The Jennes's approach uses a multi-scale approach by fitting a quadratic polynomial to a given window size using least squares. In the study used window size of 3*3 and 10*10. Input data for landform classification is digital elevation model (DEM) with resolution of 30 m. After prepared landform classification map for the study area, used geology map. The results show that the evaluated method can be helpful in the predictive mapping of geology. The algorithm of landforms classification proposed by Jennes seem to be the most applicable method.

Tourism is a rapidly growing international sector and relies intrinsically on an amenable climate to attract visitors. Climate change is likely to influence the locations preferred by tourists and the time of year of peak travel. This study investigates the effect of climate change on the Tourism Climate Index (TCI) for Iran. The paper first calculates the monthly TCI for 40 cities across Iran for each year from 1961 to 2010. Changes in the TCI over the study period for each of the cities are then explored. Increases in TCI are observed for at least one station in each month, whilst for some months no decreases occurred. For October, the maximum of 45% of stations demonstrated significant changes in TCI, whilst for December only 10% of stations demonstrated change. The stations Kashan, Orumiyeh, Shahrekord, Tabriz, Torbat-e-Heidarieh and Zahedan experienced significant increases in TCI for over 6 months. The beginning of the change in TCI is calculated to have occurred from 1970 to 1980 for all stations. Given the economic dependence on oil exports, the development of sustainable tourism in Iran is of importance. This critically requires the identification of locations most suitable for tourism, now and in the future, to guide strategic investment.

Abstract:In the modern world, the fine balance and delicate relationship between human society and the environment in which we exist has been affected by the phenomena of urbanisation and urban development. Today, various environmental factors give rise to horizontal dispersion, spread and growth of cities. One of the most important results of this is climatic change which is directly affected by the urban sprawl of every metropolis. The aim of this study is to identify the relationship between the various horizontally distributed components of Tehran city and changes in essential microclimate clusters, by means of the humidex index. Results showed that, when the humidex was calculated for each of the obtained clusters, it was evident that it had increased with time, in parallel with Shannon's entropy, as a consequence of the average temperature and relative humidity of each cluster. At the same time, results have shown that both temperature and relative humidity of the study area are related with urban sprawl, urbanisation and development, as defined by Shannon's entropy and, in consequence, with humidex. In consequence, this new concept must be considered in future research works to predict and control urban sprawl and microclimate conditions in cities. OPEN ACCESSEntropy 2013, 15 1000

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The rapid rise of Caspian Sea water level (about 2.25 meters since 1978) has caused much concern to all five surrounding countries, primarily because flooding has destroyed or damaged buildings and other engineering structures, roads, beaches and farm lands in the coastal zone. Given that climate, and more specifically climate change, is a primary factor influencing oscillations in Caspian Sea water levels, the effect of different climate change scenarios on future Caspian Sea levels was simulated. Variations in environmental parameters such as temperature, precipitation, evaporation, atmospheric carbon dioxide and water level oscillations of the Caspian sea and surrounding regions, are considered for both past (1951-2006) and future (2025-2100) time frames. The output of the UKHADGEM general circulation model and five alternative scenarios including A1CAI, BIASF, BIMES WRE450 and WRE750 were extracted using the MAGICC SCENGEN Model software (version 5.3). The results suggest that the mean temperature of the Caspian Sea region (Bandar-E-Anzali monitoring site) has increased by ca. 0.17°C per decade under the impacts of atmospheric carbon dioxide changes (r=0.21). The Caspian Sea water level has increased by ca. +36cm per decade (r=0.82) between the years 1951-2006. Mean results from all modeled scenarios indicate that the temperature will increase by ca. 3.64°C and precipitation will decrease by ca. 10% (182 mm) over the Caspian Sea, whilst in the Volga river basin, temperatures are projected to increase by ca. 4.78°C and precipitation increase by ca. 12% (58 mm) by the year 2100. Finally, statistical modeling of the Caspian Sea water levels project future water level increases of between 86 cm and 163 cm by the years 2075 and 2100, respectively.

The outdoor climate is changing. In order to assure thermal comfort in new and existing residential buildings we need to revise and adapt our building designs. Therefore, 10 meteorological stations in Iran were selected to investigate and predict the influence of climate change on the local climate diversity and variability. In order to provide a comfortable and healthy indoor environment, bioclimatic design recommendations during early design stages were revised, including during the two periods of 1986-2015 and 2020-2050. A modified Givoni's bioclimatic chart was used to visualize the climate variation and to inform designers about accurate and climate-proof bioclimatic design recommendations. The second-generation Canadian Earth System Model was used to predict changes in the maximum and minimum temperature and relative humidity components of future decades. Based on Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 2.6, RCP 4.5, and RCP 8.5 for the greenhouse gas emission section of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the effects of climate change on different cooling and heating strategies were examined. The findings of this study showed that for all the studied stations, apart from Abadan, the trend in temperature increase over the coming decades is not unforeseen. The use of heating strategies will decrease, and the use of cooling strategies will increase. Finally, this study presents an adjusted bioclimatic chart of Iran and quantifies the adaptation measures to climate change to reduce energy use and avoid overheating.