On Urban Microclimate of Oslo Neighbourhood

Abstract

Over the last decade, urbanization and rapid industrialization have made the urban environment more vulnerable to degradation. The World Bank and the United Nations (UN) have predicted that the global population will increase dramatically by the end of this century and will likely keep growing in the decades to come. Cities and other artificial urban centers have hotter air than centers, and the rural countryside is a prominent and well-documented indicator of climate change during this period of rapidly expanding cities. City dwellers and the surrounding built environment may benefit from urban green spaces, which include parks, gardens, and sports fields, during calm, clear evenings by acting as natural air conditions. This work aims to understand, analyze, and propose solutions to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect and to improve Heat Resilient Urban Design (HRUD) within the microclimate context of Oslo. Specifically, the microclimate conditions of the urban setting of Hasle region is evaluated and the effectiveness of Heat Resilient Urban Design strategies are investigated. The considered three different scenarios are a baseline scenario (Case 1) representing the status with existing conditions of the urban environment, a scenario with a high share of green roofs (Case 2), and the third with an increased tree cover (Case 3) at Hasle region. . The simulation results of the base case (Case 1) demonstrated temperature variability at different times of the day of 16th June of 2023. Positive effects of green roof implementation is manifested in some areas of the domain. A marginal increase in temperatures in all areas of the studied area was observed for Case 3. This is in contrary to the expected cooling effect. However, the difference of observed increase in temperature is about 1 °C. Since, the reason behind the unexpected outcome of the case involving greeneries is unknown, further sensitivity analysis with higher mesh resolutions, various weather conditions and effect of more greeneries should be performed.