Urban Climates

Urban Climates is the first full synthesis of modern scientific and applied research on urban climates. The book begins with an outline of what constitutes an urban ecosystem. It develops a comprehensive terminology for the subject using scale and surface classification as key constructs. It explains the physical principles governing the creation of distinct urban climates, such as airflow around buildings, the heat island, precipitation modification and air pollution, and it then illustrates how this knowledge can be applied to moderate the undesirable consequences of urban development and help create more sustainable and resilient cities. With urban climate science now a fully-fledged field, this timely book fulfills the need to bring together the disparate parts of climate research on cities into a coherent framework. It is an ideal resource for students and researchers in fields such as climatology, urban hydrology, air quality, environmental engineering and urban design.

Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Concepts; 3. Methods; 4. Airflow; 5. Radiation; 6. Energy balance; 7. Urban heat island; 8. Water; 9. Atmospheric moisture; 10. Clouds and precipitation; 11. Air pollution; 12. Geographical controls; 13. Cities and global climate change; 14. Climates of humans; 15. Climate-sensitive design; Epilogue; Appendix 1. History of urban climatology; Appendix 2. Site codes and data sources; Appendix 3. Glossary and acronyms; References; Subject index; Geographical Index.

T. R. Oke is Professor Emeritus and former Head of Geography at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. His research interests focus on urban climate and the energy and water balances of cities. Dr Oke has published more than two hundred scientific publications, and is author of the widely-used text Boundary Layer Climates (1987). He founded and was the first President of the International Association for Urban Climate. He has won several medals, including the Meteorological Service of Canada's Patterson Medal in 2002, for distinguished service to meteorology, and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society's Massey Medal in 2005, for substantial contributions to understanding the microclimates of cities.
G. Mills is an Associate Professor in the School of Geography at University College Dublin, where he is also Head of School. He teaches in the areas of climatology, sustainable urbanism and spatial analysis. His research interests lie mainly in the climates of cities, especially at the human scale, and the potential for managing these through climate-sensitive urban design. He is a former President of the Geographical Society of Ireland and a former President of the International Association for Urban Climate.
A. Christen is Full Professor at the Chair of Environmental Meteorology of the University of Freiburg, Germany where he teaches fundamentals in weather, climate, climate change and urban climate. Previously, he was Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and in the Atmospheric Science Program at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. His research focuses on interactions between complex land surfaces - including cities - and the atmosphere. He develops new methods to quantify, attribute and model the exchange of energy, water and trace-gases between complex land surfaces and the atmosphere, in order to benefit applications such as climate-sensitive urban design, air pollution and emission management, urban weather forecasting and c