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The Effect of Urbanization on Climate Extremes

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2023) | Viewed by 3634

Special Issue Editors

State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: data fusion; downscaling; climate simulation; climate extremes; spatial analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Key Lab of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resource Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.11, Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: climate change and sustainable urbanization; China’s new-type urbanization; urban governance; land spatial planning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Today, climate extremes, such as heat waves, intensive precipitation, and dry spells, are at the top of the list of global risks in terms of likelihood and their huge impacts on human life and socio-economic development. Climate extremes have increased not only in terms of frequency, but also in terms of duration and intensity in recent years. Understanding the causes behind these changes in climate extremes is of significance for reliably predicting future climate change. Cities are the main locations where the major impacts of climate change on humans occur. Urban areas accommodate more than 50% of the world’s population, and this percentage is projected to increase to 70% by 2050. The rapid urbanization processes significantly change surface properties such as albedo and roughness and increase the emissions of aerosols and anthropogenic heat, resulting in spatial differences in energy exchange between the land and near-surface atmosphere and thus exerting considerable impacts on regional climate change. The influence of urbanization on changes in extreme events has gained increased focus, as knowledge of this is critically important for designing suitable adaptation techniques, avoiding adverse future consequences, and enabling environment sustainability and economic growth.

The aim of this Special Issue is to present work related to the effects of urbanization on climate extremes. We welcome scientists working in geography, meteorology, climatology, hydrology, environment, ecology, economy, and sociology to contribute original research articles and reviews dealing with this issue. Contributions can include but are not limited to the spatiotemporal analysis of urban climate extremes; long-term trends of urban climate extremes; the detection and attribution of urbanization effects on local, regional, and global climate extremes; methods for the attribution of extreme events; urban heat island mitigation; future urban extreme risks; ways to mitigate the effects of urbanization on extreme events.

Dr. Na Zhao
Prof. Dr. Mingxing Chen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • climate extremes
  • urbanization effect
  • detection
  • attribution
  • change trends
  • spatio-temporal variations
  • city classification
  • heat waves
  • flood
  • future risk

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 17620 KiB  
Article
Enhancing Livability in Informal Areas: A Participatory Approach to Improve Urban Microclimate in Outdoor Spaces
by Heba Allah Essam E. Khalil, AbdelKhalek Ibrahim, Noheir Elgendy and Nahla Makhlouf
Sustainability 2022, 14(11), 6395; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14116395 - 24 May 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1794
Abstract
Urban informalities have shown global unprecedented growth rates in the past 50 years, currently housing around two thirds of Cairenes. As outdoor activities are fundamental to urban life, improving environmental performance of this urban product is essential. This paper investigates microclimate in Cairo’s [...] Read more.
Urban informalities have shown global unprecedented growth rates in the past 50 years, currently housing around two thirds of Cairenes. As outdoor activities are fundamental to urban life, improving environmental performance of this urban product is essential. This paper investigates microclimate in Cairo’s informal areas and how to improve it through low-tech interventions. It aims to identify relevant heat stress counterstrategies, and how they can be promoted among and accepted by residents. Building on previous work regarding an Outdoor Spaces Environmental Performance Assessment OSEPA tool, the researchers identified needed intervention areas within Imbaba informal district. Through an extensive participatory process, the team developed tailored solutions that help improve the urban microclimate using low tech and low-cost interventions. The field work identified vital prerequisites and revealed the necessity of engaging various stakeholders to ensure ownership and applicability. The analysis concludes with an Outdoor Spaces Environmental Performance Improvement OSEPI model for developing solutions to improve urban microclimate within spaces of informal areas and a toolbox for relevant interventions. This serves both as an input in informal areas upgrading projects and designing low to middle-income neighbourhoods. Thus, ensuring environmental justice and counteracting current practices that predominantly ignore environmental issues especially increased heat stress. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effect of Urbanization on Climate Extremes)
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17 pages, 2587 KiB  
Article
Geographical and Meteorological Evaluations of COVID-19 Spread in Iran
by Gholamreza Goudarzi, Ali Akbar Babaei, Mohammad Javad Mohammadi, Vafa Hamid and Heydar Maleki
Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5429; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14095429 - 30 Apr 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1211
Abstract
Since late 2019 many people all over the world have become infected and have died due to coronavirus. There have been many general studies about the spread of the virus. In this study, new and accumulated confirmed cases (NCC and ACC), new and [...] Read more.
Since late 2019 many people all over the world have become infected and have died due to coronavirus. There have been many general studies about the spread of the virus. In this study, new and accumulated confirmed cases (NCC and ACC), new and accumulated recovered cases (NRC and ARC), and new and accumulated deaths (ND and AD) were evaluated by geographical properties, meteorological parameters and air particulate matters between 3 April 2020 and 11 June 2020 within 15 provinces in Iran. Meteorological parameters, air particulate matters and COVID-19 data were collected from Iran Meteorological Organization, the Environmental Protection Agency and Aftabnews website, respectively. The results of the study show that provinces in dry lands (i.e., Kerman and South Khorasan) not only had low admission of NCC, ACC, ARC and AD but also presented lower rates of NCC, ACC and AD per 105 population. Air temperature showed positive and significant correlation with the number of COVID-19 cases. This is because of hot outdoor air especially in costal and equatorial regions that forces people to stay in closed environments with no ventilation and with closed-cycle air conditioners. Maximum air pressure was found to be the most frequent (66%) and significant parameter correlating with health outcomes associated with COVID-19. The most engaged province in this study was Khuzestan, while provinces in dry lands (i.e., Kerman and South Khorasan) showed low number of health endpoints associated with COVID-19. The highest rate of accumulated and new recovered cases per 105 population were also found in Khuzestan and Kerman provinces. North Khorasan also showed the worst rate of N&ARC/105 population. Therefore, air temperature, dry lands and population were the most important factors for the control of coronavirus spread. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effect of Urbanization on Climate Extremes)
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