Urban Climate Under Change, Phase 2

The research programme „Urban Climate Under Change phase 2“ aims to evaluate the urban climate model PALM-4U as well as the further development into a product that meets the needs of municipalities and other users. The concurrent development and evaluation shall facilitate an efficient knowledge transfer from science into practice.
Module B (Stadtklima2-B) of the research program shall conduct the evaluation and scientific application of the urban climate model PALM-4U in close collaboration with Module A and C. Observations performed during the first phase of research program as well as long term observations shall form the basis for this evaluation. Modell development will regard processes not yet included in PALM-4U, concept development shall address the required level of detail and cover efficient generation of input data.
Application-specific model evaluation within the sub-project TP9 will focus on mitigation of bio-meteorological stress (thermal exposition, wind and noise) by urban vegetation. TP 9 will further contribute to a sound propagation module that is to be developed by Module A (WP-I4) and will conduct measurements of sound propagation for the validation of that module.
Urban vegetation plays an important role to mitigate the expected increase of heat stress in urban environments. As a prerequisite for the quantification of this ecosystem services, the currently insuffizient modelling of vegetation in PALM-4U will be designed with more detail but also more efficient. Improvement will encompass a better representation of spatial vegetation structure and extension of the module that describes the energy and matter fluxes at vegetation surfaces. This will facilitate an adequate simulation of radiation transfer, evapotranspiration, air quality and wind-throw risks within PALM-4U. A practical application of PALM-4U on the city quarter Gorbitz (Dresden) will be conducted in cooperation with the Municipality of Dresden and Modul C.