Enhancing urban resilience: The importance of micrometeorological measurements in Central and Southeast European cities

Diverse factors influence thermal conditions in cities, including urbanization, city size, population, vegetation coverage, and similar elements. As a result, thermal conditions can vary significantly across urban areas, both on a local and microscale, especially during the summer months. Monitoring thermal patterns in different urban environments reveals a notable increase in temperature amplification within urban settings.

A study was conducted in different urban settings of five cities (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Ljubljana, Banja Luka, and Trebinje) during hot summer days in 2021 and 2022. These cities differ in urban area, topography, land cover features, etc. Therefore, monitoring was carried out in different urban designs (grey, green, and blue), where this approach of location selection could provide temporal and spatial datasets and contribute to climate change assessments at micro- and local-scales in urban environments.

The positive impact of green and blue areas in the city is highly noticeable, in contrast to grey urban areas, where results show that grey urban areas experience greater thermal differences. For example, in Novi Sad, urbanized parts have temperatures up to 2.9°C higher than areas with green or blue spaces. Similar patterns were observed in all cities, with Belgrade showing the largest difference of 4.8°C between grey and green areas. In Banja Luka (2.5°C) and Trebinje (1.5°C), temperature differences are smaller but still noticeable. The most urbanized zones were identified as the most uncomfortable and hot areas of the city. In conclusion, urban areas have distinct thermal conditions, even at the micro and local scales. Monitoring climate change across different city levels is crucial for making cities more climate-resilient in the 21st century.

Acknowledgement: This work was supported by the COST Action project entitled “FAIR Network of Micrometeorological Measurements,” acronym FAIRNESS (project no. CA20108).