An approach to evaluate the intra-urban thermal variability in summer using an urban indicator.
Urban planners and managers need tools to evaluate the performance of the present state and future development of cities in terms of comfort and quality of life. In this paper, an approach to analyse the intra-urban summer thermal variability, using an urban planning indicator, is presented. The proportion of buildings and concrete surfaces in a specific buffer area are calculated. Besides, the relationship between urban and temperature indicators is investigated and used to produce thermal maps of the city. This approach is applied to the analysis of intra-urban variability in Florence (Italy), of two thermal indices (heat index and cooling degree days) used to evaluate impacts on thermal comfort and energy consumption for indoor cooling. Our results suggest that urban planning indicators can describe intra-urban thermal variability in a way that can easily be used by urban planners for evaluating the effects of future urbanization scenarios on human health.
Institute of Biometeorology - CNR, Via Caproni 8, 50145 Firenze, Italy. Electronic address: l.massetti@ibimet.cnr.it.
Luciano
L
Massetti
Interdepartmental Centre of Bioclimatology, University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine, 18, 50144 Firenze, Italy; Department of Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences, University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine, 18, 50144 Firenze, Italy.
Martina
M
Petralli
Interdepartmental Centre of Bioclimatology, University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine, 18, 50144 Firenze, Italy; Department of Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences, University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine, 18, 50144 Firenze, Italy.
Giada
G
Brandani
Interdepartmental Centre of Bioclimatology, University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine, 18, 50144 Firenze, Italy; Department of Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences, University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine, 18, 50144 Firenze, Italy.
Simone
S
Orlandini
D002947:Cities; D002958:City Planning / Q000379:methods*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D012621:Seasons; D014507:Urbanization / Q000639:trends*
Cooling degree day; Heat index; Land cover; Thermal map; Urban planning