The project started in April 1997 and is partly financed by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The main objective is to develop a dynamic climatic map in order to simulate the urban climate and develop a practical useful tool for climate planning in cities. The dynamic climate map will be based on a geographical information system.
Earlier studies in Sweden has found the need for easy accessible and user-friendly information on the local climate in the urban and regional planning process. Local climatological maps has been developed for this purpose but these maps have limitations as the traditional map is a static feature while the climate is a dynamic process. A dynamic map, which shows the variations of the urban climate in space and time, would help to increase both the knowledge of the climate processes and the usefulness for climate planning.
Two parallel methods will be used to create the dynamic map. The empirical method is based on rules developed through field studies and the geostatistical method is based on Kriging and Cokriging. The purpose of using two parallel methods is that it gives the opportunity to compare different results of the same parameters and in this way evaluate the two methods and see possible advantages and disadvantages.
The study area includes the Göteborg urban district and two adjacent districts, Partille and Mölndal. These three districts represent a geographical unit in which a lot of valuable climate information is available through earlier projects and permanent meteorological stations. The region has approximately 560 000 inhabitants and is situated on the Swedish west coast.
The following data is used:
· Climatological data (temperature, wind, cloudiness, pressure and radiation) from seven meteorological stations in the area.
· A digitalizised climatological map containing features like production areas of cold air, cold air lakes, heat islands, cool height areas, damped sea areas, strong wind areas, sun and shadow areas, all with a further internal classification as for example moderate, strong and extreme cold air lakes.
· A digitalizied landuse map in scale 1:50 000 concluding information on buildings (six classes), green areas (three classes), agriculture, water and "hard surface" areas (one class each).
The co-operation through an existing project with researchers at the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the Chalmers University of Technology and with urban planners at the Town planning office, Göteborg municipality is of great value for this project as one goal is to provide practically useful guidelines for planners and decision-makers.
Methods and results from the project will be discussed at the conference.