Climate of Cities

Abstract

In a review of Helmut Landsberg's book The Urban Climate (L1981-d), I referred to him as "urban climatology's most respected doyen". The subject was enormously enhanced by him having lent his name and interest. During the thirty years of his most direct influence, he helped bring the field from a largely descriptive status to one with a much fuller physical understanding. But more than that he kept a much needed balance between research ideals and practical relevance through his gentle urgings and reminders.In the first part of this paper, I will provide an historical overview of developments and personalities in urban climatology and Landsberg's relation to them. In the second part, I will illustrate his contributions by liberal reference to his own writings on the subject. Finally, we will note some of the professional and personal qualities which combined clearly to set him apart. The Development of Urban ClimatologyThe visually obvious impacts of the growth of CItIes upon the atmosphere were commented upon and studied from the earliest times but it was not until the invention and development of meteorological instruments such as the thermometer, barometer and anemometer that the more subtle aspects of urban climate could be investigated. Developments from that time can be usefully divided into three periods: first, prior to 1930 simple climatographies of individual weather elements were constructed; second, from 1930 to 1965 description was extended to include greater spatial and temporal variability and linkage of climatic effects to weather and urban structure; third, post -1965 emphasis shifted to seek the physical basis of urban effects and to construct models to simulate them. PRIOR TO 1930: DISCOVERY AND DESCRIPTION Luke Howard is credited as the Father of Urban Climatology for his observation, interpretation and reporting of air temperatures within the city of London (at the Royal Society), and at a number of sites, in the then countryside. He reported his findings in two early volumes entitled The Climate of London (Howard 1818(Howard , 1820 and later in a much expanded second edition of three volumes (Howard 1833). Despite what we would now consider to be unrepresentative exposure of thermometers it is clear that he observed, and correctly recognized, the anomalous warmth of the city (both diurnally and seasonally) that we refer to as the urban heat island. Further he hypothesized concerning the cause of this feature and identified almost all of the mechanisms we now consider responsible. His feat was a most auspicious start to the scientific study of city air. 61F. Baer et al. (eds.),

Urban heat islands in humid and arid climates: role of urban form and thermal properties in Colombo, Sri Lanka and Phoenix, USA

“…reduced ability of wind to carry heat either as sensible or latent turbulent heat flux (Oke 1988, 1991, Todhunter 1990, Saitoh & Hoshi 1993. Oke (1988) argued that non-geometrical effects such as heat capacity and anthropogenic heat release may be linked to urban geometries, since high density buildings are, by definition, associated with extensive land use (more artificial surfaces) and intense human activity (thus, higher amounts of waste heat).…”

Antioxidant capacity of honey from the urban apiary: a comparison with honey from the rural apiary

“…In the rural landscape the large daily temperature fluctuations, strong sunlight, and limited water availability (average annual rainfall-600 mm; Climate-Data.org) are observed. On the other hand, the air temperature in the city is higher, but not strongly fluctuated (heat-island effect 24 ), the availability of water is facilitated (the presence of the river-Rawa, the average annual rainfall-689 mm; Climate-Data.org) and the air humidity is higher than in rural areas 25,26 . Research shows that plants subjected to drought stress synthesize large amounts of polyphenols 22 .…”