Meteorological Effects of Green Infrastructure on a Developing Medium Latin American City: A Numerical Modeling Assessment

Otavio Medeiros Sobrinho (), Anderson Paulo Rudke, Marcos Vinicius Bueno de Morais and Leila Droprinchinski Martins
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Otavio Medeiros Sobrinho: Graduate Program in Environmental Engineering, Campus Londrina, Federal University of Technology, Paraná, Av. dos Pioneiros, 3131, Londrina 86036-370, Brazil
Anderson Paulo Rudke: Graduate Program in Environmental Engineering, Campus Londrina, Federal University of Technology, Paraná, Av. dos Pioneiros, 3131, Londrina 86036-370, Brazil
Marcos Vinicius Bueno de Morais: Departamento de Obras Civiles, Facultad de Ciencias de la Ingeniería, Universidad Católica del Maule, Av. San Miguel, 3605, Talca 346000, Chile
Leila Droprinchinski Martins: Graduate Program in Environmental Engineering, Campus Londrina, Federal University of Technology, Paraná, Av. dos Pioneiros, 3131, Londrina 86036-370, Brazil

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-19

Abstract: Urban areas concentrate more than 50% of the world’s population and are highly impacted by human activities, mainly due to high population density, directly affecting the micro-climate. In this sense, green infrastructures (GIs) have been pointed out to be helpful in mitigating these effects in large urban areas, where most of the studies were conducted. Therefore, this study evaluates the impacts on meteorological variables in a medium-sized city through the Weather Research and Forecasting model by implementing urban classes of Local Climate Zones (LCZ). Five urban parks and an urban lake were identified and expanded in the inner model grid to analyze the effects of GIs on meteorological variables in the urban environment. Results show that the 10 m wind speed can present an improvement for all statistical indices due to the better vertical representation of urban structures in the central urban area by the LCZ urban classes. In addition, green areas contributed locally to reducing the urban heat island (UHI) effects, resulting in cooling rates around these infrastructures. Compared to the lake, the use of the urban LCZ classes has proven to be an effective way to improve the representation of meteorological variables by a mesoscale weather model. Regarding GIs, this practice performs environmental services capable of mitigating the effects of UHI, sustaining the importance of these systems in urban projects, even for medium-sized cities. Finally, these findings provide support for public decision-makers in creating Master Plans for medium-sized cities regarding the implementation of GIs.

Keywords: urban parks; urban planning; sustainable cities; thermal mitigation strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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