Urban Climatology - Climate Change

Climate Change

The study of Urban Climatology is strongly linked to research surrounding global climate change: as centres for socio-economic activities, cities produce large amounts of Green House Gases, most notably CO₂ as a consequence of human activities such as transport, development (e.g. concrete production), waste related to heating and cooling requirements etc.

Furthermore globally, cities are said to grow into the 21st century (and beyond) due to the opportunities they present and as a consequence of globalization - as they grow and develop the landscapes in which they inhabit will change so too will the atmosphere resting above them, increasing emissions of GHG's thus contributing to the global green house effect.

Finally, many cities are vulnerable to the projected consequences of climate change (sea level rise, changes in temperature, precipitation, storm frequency) as most develop on or near coast-lines, nearly all produce distinct urban heat islands and atmospheric pollution: as areas in which there is concentrated human habitation these effects potentially will have the largest and most dramatic impact (e.g. France's heat wave in 2003) and thus are a major focus for urban climatology.