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Atmosphere
Special Issues
Infrastructure Planning for Urban Climate Moderation
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Infrastructure Planning for Urban Climate Moderation

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Climatology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (8 November 2019) | Viewed by 11416

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Paul Osmond

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Interests: urban morphology; building/urban metabolism; ecosystem services; green infrastructure; urban climatology; architectural/urban ambience
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Sarath Mataraarachchi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Interests: sustainable infrastructure; sustainable built environment; smart cities; urban planning

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Infrastructure is typically defined according to colour; grey, green, or blue. Grey (conventional) infrastructure delineates the road, rail, energy, water and waste assets that continue to power our cities. Green infrastructure is portrayed variously as an intra-urban network of greenery, or a structured assemblage of diverse green elements such as parks, domestic gardens, street trees and green roofs and walls. Blue infrastructure embraces innovative technologies integrated with existing stormwater and wastewater systems to enhance urban water management, facilitate reuse and mitigate flooding. In today’s ultra-connected world, information networks, including communications, big data, the internet of things, surely qualify as an infrastructure ‘colour’ in their own right—transparent infrastructure, perhaps?

Rapid urbanisation and the resulting growth in the extent and intensity of local urban heat island effects, the overarching global challenge of climate change, and the interaction between the global and local, as represented by the increasing frequency, duration and severity of heatwaves, provides the backdrop to this Special Issue of Atmosphere. The fundamental factors around which research and practice on moderating urban climates coalesce are urban form, water, vegetation and materials. These four factors are intimately tied to each of the infrastructure colours outlined above. This Special Issue invites contributions from across all colours. The objective is to publish a cross-section of quality research that addresses how urban infrastructure planning can contribute to reducing urban overheating.

Dr. Paul Osmond
Dr. Sarath Mataraarachchi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • urban climate
  • infrastructure planning
  • grey infrastructure
  • green infrastructure
  • blue infrastructure
  • urban form
  • materials
  • urban heat island

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 567 KiB  
Article
Willingness to Pay for Green Infrastructure in Residential Development—A Consumer Perspective
by Agnieszka Zalejska-Jonsson, Sara J. Wilkinson and Richard Wahlund
Atmosphere 2020, 11(2), 152; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11020152 - 30 Jan 2020
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 8180
Abstract
This paper investigates the literature and theoretical underpinning of the concept of “willingness to pay” (WTP) for green infrastructure (GI) with consequences for residential development. The benefits of GI in urban settlements include improved air quality, attenuation of the urban heat island, thermal [...] Read more.
This paper investigates the literature and theoretical underpinning of the concept of “willingness to pay” (WTP) for green infrastructure (GI) with consequences for residential development. The benefits of GI in urban settlements include improved air quality, attenuation of the urban heat island, thermal insulation and lower energy bills for green roofs and walls, the creation of social amenity space, a habitat for biodiversity, and stormwater water attenuation. Collectively, these benefits are termed eco-system services and enhance sustainability. The role of GI, the “lungs of the planet”, is heavily correlated to atmospheric conditions; high levels of GI improve air quality, which is acknowledged widely with many cities increasing GI to make them more resilient to future predicted challenges with respect to heat and poor air quality. In addition, there is evidence that the biophilia effect enhances human well-being. There are some studies claiming that purchasers pay a premium for property with good GI. However, there is little research about the process in consumers’ minds leading to such a premium—if, how, when (under what circumstances), and then to what extent are consumers willing to pay for GI. This process, if better understood, may enable sellers or policy makers to influence the amounts of GI in developments, thus making it possible to enhance the value of GI to buyers. There is some research pointing to factors to be considered when modeling such processes. For developers, knowing the optimum amount of GI would enable them to design and construct developments with maximum purchaser appeal. To do this, stakeholders need to predict the level of WTP amongst potential purchasers for which they need to understand the decision processes behind WTP. In this way, sustainability in residential property development could be optimized. The paper analyzes the literature and theories concerning WTP, focusing on dwellings and GI. Our findings are that some quantitative evidence exists that purchasers pay more for residential property with high levels of GI in some cities, but they do so without any understanding of the possible decision processes leading to those premiums (if, how, when, and then to what extent). The paper proposes a comprehensive conceptual model that may explain buyers’ WTP for a dwelling based on a presumed cost–benefit analysis performed by buyers, which has been extended here to include GI and psychological factors. Thus, the paper has a consumer perspective. The model may be used to select variables and test them in empirical studies, and by integrating with other factors in the model, it can attain a more comprehensive understanding of WTP for GI in residential development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Infrastructure Planning for Urban Climate Moderation)
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13 pages, 1726 KiB  
Article
June Temperature Trends in the Southwest Deserts of the USA (1950–2018) and Implications for Our Urban Areas
by Anthony Brazel
Atmosphere 2019, 10(12), 800; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10120800 - 11 Dec 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2741
Abstract
Within the United States, the Southwest USA deserts show the largest temperature changes (1901–2010) besides Alaska, according to the most recent USA National Climate Assessment report. The report does not discuss urban effects vs. regional effects that might be evident in trends. Twenty-five [...] Read more.
Within the United States, the Southwest USA deserts show the largest temperature changes (1901–2010) besides Alaska, according to the most recent USA National Climate Assessment report. The report does not discuss urban effects vs. regional effects that might be evident in trends. Twenty-five temperature stations with ca. 68-year records (1950 to 2018) have been accessed from US Global Historical Climate Network archives. Land cover data are accessed from a National Land Cover Database. June results considering both urban and rural sites show an astounding rate per year change among sites ranging from −0.01 to 0.05 °C for maximum temperatures and 0.01 to 0.11 °C for minimum temperatures (−0.8 to 3.2 °C, and 0.8 to 8.0 °C for the entire period). For maximum temperatures, almost half of the sites showed no significant trends at a stringent 0.01 level of statistical significance, but 20 of 25 were significant at the 0.05 level. For minimum temperatures, over 75% of sites were significant at the 0.01 level (92% at 0.05 level of significance). The urban-dominated stations in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, and Yuma show large minimum temperature trends, indicating emerging heat island effects. Rural sites, by comparison, show much smaller trends. Addressing heat in our urban areas by local actions, through collaborations with stakeholders and political resolve, will aid in meeting future urban challenges in this era of projected global climate change and continued warming. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Infrastructure Planning for Urban Climate Moderation)
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