8 ways how historical weather data can help in Urban Planning

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8 Ways How Historical Weather Data Can Help in
Urban Planning
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Introduction

• Over the past few centuries, people have gathered
  in huge settlements more and more, where the
  world's urban population has surpassed its rural
  population. These cities, which range in size,
  occupy 1-3 of the planet's geographic area. In
  2015, there will be 59 cities with a population
  of more than 5 million, up from 4 in the 1950s.
  These cities, many of which are in developing
  nations, suffer high air pollution levels. In
  2009, cities with more than five million
  residents were home to 16 of the world's
  population. 2 Young individuals under the age of
  35 are responsible for a sizable percentage of
  the population shift into cities. Cities offer a
  dynamic setting for innovation, cross-cultural
  contact, and economic advancement. Due to the
  employment and educational prospects, they also
  draw young people.

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The Impact of Urban Climate And Weather

• Cities will further influence local, regional,
  and global climates through two key methods.
  First, local temperature, air circulation,
  precipitation, and the intensity and frequency of
  thunderstorms will continue to be influenced by
  urban elements such as morphology or heat
  emissions. Furthermore, historical weather data
  and climate will change both locally and globally
  due to altering chemical emissions or feedbacks
  brought on by air pollution.
• The microclimate, turbulence regime, and
  atmospheric flow are all influenced by various
  urban factors. These characteristics can alter
  how air pollutants are transported, dispersed,
  and deposited both within and upstream of
  metropolitan areas (one form of that is acid
  rain).

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Key illustrations Include

• The location of structures and other obstructions
  (or, more broadly, all roughness elements)
  impacts the flow's turbulence regime, speed, and
  direction.
• Hydro-meteorological regimes and pollution
  deposition are impacted by the broad use of
  waterproof materials and frequent vegetation
  removal in metropolitan areas.
• Human activities that release anthropogenic heat,
  such as transportation, building heating and
  cooling, impact the thermal regime.
• Radiation transfer, cloud formation, and
  precipitation are all impacted by the emission of
  pollutants, especially aerosols.
• Street geometry (also known as "street canyons")
  has an impact on the flows and heat transfer
  across various surfaces (such as roads or walls).
• Additionally, although a per head of population
  position is based on their emissions intensity
  may be marginally lower than rural areas, cities
  contribute significantly more to climate change
  via greenhouse gas (GHG) emission levels than do
  rural areas, primarily due to geysers of carbon
  dioxide (CO2) emission levels from urban as well
  as nearby supporting areas.

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Climate Change And Air Quality in Large Cities

• A slew of recent studies has been launched to
  investigate these challenges. These studies aim
  to quantify the feedback mechanisms connecting
  megacity air quality, regional and local
  climates, as well as global climate change to
  assess the effects of megacities as well as large
  air-pollution hubs on local, regional, and global
  air quality and to develop better tools for
  forecasting pollution levels in megacities.
• Even though significant progress has been made,
  a more interdisciplinary study is required to
  better understand how emissions, air quality, and
  local and global historical weather data by zip
  code interact. Studies must cross the temporal
  and spatial scales connecting local pollutants,
  air quality, and historical weather data with
  climate or global atmospheric chemistry. They
  must also address both basic and practical
  research. To help national meteorological
  agencies better manage meteorology and related
  aspects of urban pollution, WMO developed the
  Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) Urban Researchers
  Meteorology Environment (GURME) project.

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Future Research Priorities And A Plan of Action

• To map each city's unique vulnerabilities and
  determine the solutions that would be most
  helpful, each city's needs and requirements
  should be guided by the results of impacts and
  risks. Coastal towns have different problems than
  landlocked cities, while metropolitan areas in
  the tropics have different needs than those that
  experience harsh winters. When determining
  priority services and designing and establishing
  urban observational networks which capture the
  events of interest at the necessary spatial and
  temporal resolution, authorities use data sharing
  agreements between city agencies as a vital
  building component.
• High-resolution coupled environmental prediction
  models with real city-specific processes,
  boundary conditions, and energy and physical
  property fluxes play a significant role in
  providing city services. New urban-focused
  observational methods are required to power these
  models and generate the high-quality forecasts
  employed in these new services. To ensure sure
  services, advice, and warnings result in
  appropriate action and feedback that enhances the
  services, new, targeted, and personalized methods
  of communication with users are necessary. To
  generate and provide innovative services in a
  complex and changing urban context, new skills
  capacities will be needed.