Spatial impacts of urban structures on micrometeorological variables (several theses possible)

Problem

The heterogeneity of urban surfaces including buildings and vegetation causes high variability of micrometeorological variables on small spatial scales which makes it hard to observe or even predict climate conditions and in particular evapotranspiration with high resolution on the scale of entire cities. Regarding future climate changes and their impacts on urban climate and hydrology, the predictability of these small scale variations becomes more and more relevant for e.g. urban planners to improve the development of appropriate mitigation strategies. Therefore, new transfer functions for meteorological variables are needed, which consider the structural variability in urban areas and its impacts on the energy balance (shading effects, ventilation, lateral longwave energy fluxes).

Goal of the thesis

Within this thesis a mobile meteorological station (the station is mounted on a bicycle trailer and transported by an E-Bike) will be used to study the impact of a defined urban structure (e.g. a building, a bridge, a park) on the deviation of locally observed micrometeorological variables in comparison to a fixed climate station.

Challenge

The focus of this thesis will be on testing either the impact of distance and exposition of a structure or the temporal effect during the day.

Supervisors

Merle Koelbing, Tobias Schuetz

Contact

merle.koelbing@hydro.uni-freiburg.de Tel. +49 (0)761 / 203-3509

tobias.schuetz@hydro.uni-freiburg.de Tel. +49 (0)761 / 203-3519