Mobile Microclimate Monitoring: Enhancing Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Temperate Cities

Densely built urban areas often experience overheating, contributing to the urban heat island effect and increasing heat-related risks. These phenomena directly impact various aspects of city life, including public health, biodiversity, urbanization, traffic, and green spaces. They are also the focus of numerous scientific disciplines and local/regional institutions. Despite this attention, many questions remain regarding the causes, timing, and locations of heat-related risks within urban environments.

To address these questions and support interdisciplinary collaboration, detailed spatial and temporal meteorological data are essential. The creation and collection of micrometeorological measurements and datasets can enhance interdisciplinary research, facilitate comprehensive assessments, and inform climate change adaptation strategies.

The experience of the Novi Sad Urban Climate Lab (NSUCL) at the University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sciences (Serbia), has shown that an interdisciplinary research approach yields valuable outcomes for mitigating heat-related and urbanization challenges. Collaborative research with architecture experts has revealed that strategically planting additional trees can effectively mitigate the urban heat island effect and improve outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) in densely built-up areas. For example, the placement of additional trees has been shown to reduce OTC values at specific manikin locations by up to 6.11°C (UTCI), highlighting the importance of carefully determining their locations to enhance thermal comfort during hot summer days.

These findings are based on micrometeorological monitoring conducted in the field during the summers of 2022 and 2023, utilizing Mobile Micrometeorological Carts (MMCs) developed by the NSUCL. The impact of additional trees on OTC conditions was assessed at three selected locations: Catholic Porta Square, Gymnasium Street (with a north-south orientation), and Laze Teleckog Street (with a southeast-northwest orientation). These locations represent densely built urban morphologies characterized as intensive pedestrian zones in downtown Novi Sad.

Acknowledgement: The research was supported by the project no. 003026234 2024 09418 003 000 000 001, funded by the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (regional government).