Cityclimate

"Cities should be built in the countryside; the air is better." - Henry Monnier (1799 - 1877)

People recognized differences in air quality between the city and its surroundings already in the 19th century. A city has a different climate, the so-called urban climate, which is different to the surrounding area with respect to temperature, wind, humidity, and other meteorological variables. Today, these climatic differences are increasing due to climate change.

The new meteoblue city climate monitoring system enables cities to develop an affordable infrastructure to precisely measure, forecast, and model their city climate within less than a year. This creates a reliable information basis for the city planners, decision makers, and the citizens.

The system has been tested in Switzerland for a full season and is expected to evolve rapidly in 2020 in co-development with universities and further partner cities.

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Mitigation measures in Zurich

Certain parts of the city of Zurich warm up faster than others. Additional heat generation is primarily due to the the lack of ventilation pathways, but also due to the higher relative amount of sealed, rather dark surfaces, or due to the lower amount of vegetation.

The city of Zurich currently develops different strategies to counteract urban heat islands. In a recent study (see here), plans to punctually reduce heat, protect vulnerable groups, or improve city ventilation have been published. The ZHAW is currently simulating the application of a subset of identified protection measures to a selected region of the city of Zurich in order to show the theoretically achievable cooling potential.