814312 Urban Climate and Environmental Meteorology Lab (in Eng.)

Type
Lecture and seminar
Semester hours
2
Lecturer (assistant)
Weihs, Philipp , Formayer, Herbert , Mayer, Monika , Reinwald, Florian
Organisation
Offered in
Sommersemester 2025
Languages of instruction
Englisch
Content

The urban population has grown substantially in recent decades. Today about half of the world’s population lives in urban environments and future projections indicate that by 2050 about 70% of the world’s population will live in cities. Policymakers strive to provide a healthy living environment for urban dwellers including efficient public transportation and medical infrastructure. From a biometeorological point of view anthropogenic activities and climate change affect the thermal environment of cities and urban air quality. This class will provide the theoretical basis to understand connections between ambient meteorology and the thermal environment of cities and thus human thermal stress and discomfort. In this course specific focus will be given on the urban energy budget and interactions between the atmosphere and urban structures within the boundary layer. Furthermore fundamentals of atmospheric chemistry, relevant to urban environments, will be presented in class along with concepts to improve ambient urban air quality. Furthermore students will focus in small teams on a particular urban environmental problem and will present the problem, its underlying physical and chemical drivers as well as potential mitigation strategies in class.
Previous knowledge expected

none
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

After participation students will have gained knowledge about the dominant physical and chemical processes (and their connections) in the urban boundary layer and how they affect thermal comfort and ambient air quality. Students will have gained knowledge on how anthropogenic activities can influence urban environments in negative and positive ways. Students will have gained comprehension of fundamental biometeorological planning aspects in urban areas.
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.