Evaluation of human thermal stress within urban environments in Athens, Greece
- 1Laboratory of Climatology and Atmospheric Environment, Department of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece (nastos@geol.uoa.gr)
- 2Research Centre for Atmospheric Physics and Climatology, Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece
- 3School of Applied Arts and Sustainable Design, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece
Climate change has led to national, regional and local adaptation measures. However, these measures are not usually implemented in a targeted way, i.e. in urban areas with the most significant problem, or they are not designed in the optimal way to have the maximum efficiency at local scale. Towards this perspective the evaluation of human thermal stress in different urban environments, using appropriate models at very high resolution is considered fully appropriate.
The assessment and quantification of the thermal comfort for selected urban districts within the wider Athens area, are performed by the application of PET (Physiologically Equivalent Temperature) and UTCI (Universal Thermal Climate Index) indexes, which are based on the energy balance of the human body. The above indexes are calculated with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model ENVI-met, at city scale (resolution 1 × 1m). Measurements from the nearest meteorological stations as well as sub-scaling of the ERA5 data of the European COPERNICUS service at a local scale of 1 × 1 km with the atmospheric model WRF, are used as input data to the CFD model. The simulations are evaluated using high spatial and temporal resolution measurements obtained by a bicycle equipped with meteorological sensors and by an unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a thermal camera. Further, the input data for future runs are obtained from downscaling of the emission mitigation scenario (RCP4.5) and the extreme climate scenario (RCP8.5) with the WRF model.
The findings of the analysis will provide comprehensive actions in order to optimize the resilience of the urban environment to various climate change scenarios.
Acknowledgements: This research is co-financed by European Regional Development Fund and Greek Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship & Innovation (NSRF 2014-2020), entitled “Bioclimatic urban design services for the sustainability and resilience of the urban environment in the context of climate change (BIOASTY)”
How to cite: Nastos, P. T., Solomos, S., Polychroni, I. D., Nastou, M.-P. P., and Zerefos, S.: Evaluation of human thermal stress within urban environments in Athens, Greece, EMS Annual Meeting 2023, Bratislava, Slovakia, 4–8 Sep 2023, EMS2023-605, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2023-605, 2023.
