Land Use Based Urban Vulnerability to Climate Change Assessment

Abstract

Urban environments are potentially threatened by changing climate, especially in form of heat and flash flood hazards. Therefore, there is an urgent need to assess future urban vulnerability to these phenomenons. Purpose of this research is to define heat and flash flood indicators, based on land use, cover and morphology ofurban environments. We enhanced a standard scheme of local climate zones with extended urban morphology, which plays a key role in urban heat island effect. As heat hazard indicator we defined number of days, with fixed threshold exceeded temperature. Meanwhile for flash flood hazard we selected Curve Number, which considers soil type, hydrologic condition, land use, cover and percentage of impervious surface. Both of these indicators can be related to discrete urban classes and be ranked by hazard severity. Further step is to model future urban environment withrelation of heat and flash flood hazards, which eventually will be incorporated into future urban vulnerability framework.

Mapping and assessment of urban ecosystem condition and services using integrated index of spatial structure

“…The assessment of an ecosystem condition is measured by a set of indicators which are organised in a system based on the concept of ecosystem integrity. It is defined as "supporting and maintaining a balanced, integrated adaptive community of organisms having a species composition, diversity and functional organisation comparable to that of a natural habitat of the region" (Jørgensen and Müller 2000). The indicators classification system is organised in four levels.…”