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Summer thermal comfort in Czech cities: measured effects of blue and green features in city centres

  • Special Issue: 1st European Biometeorologists Meeting
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Abstract

This study consists of nine case studies addressing thermal comfort in the public areas of city centres, with particular emphasis on the measurable effects of blue and green infrastructure on thermal exposure. Daytime on-site measurements were taken in summer in the paved areas of squares, in the proximity of water fountains, and in the shade of trees in order to evaluate levels of heat stress based on the universal thermal climate index (UTCI). The differences in UTCI values between the research points confirm substantial cooling associated with high vegetation (trees induced differences up to 10.5 °C in UTCI), while the measurable cooling effect of low vegetation was negligible (not more than 2.3 °C UTCI). It was also quite low around water fountains, spray fountains, and misting systems. It follows that municipal authorities should consider the differences in cooling effect potential of individual types of blue and green infrastructure when incorporating climate adaptation measures into urban planning.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all those who assisted with on-site measurements: Daniel Raška, Václav Vít, Olga Halásová, Lucia Brisudová and Tereza Aubrechtová. Tony Long, Dalmellington, Scotland, helped work up the English.

Funding

This research was supported by the project Identification of locations vulnerable to thermal stress: a tool for sustainable urban planning, grant ref. TJ01000118 from the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, and by an internal grant from Palacký University, Olomouc ref. GA_PrF_2020_029 Spatial analysis of selected environmental and social issues in urban and suburban areas.

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  1. Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic

    Michal Lehnert, Vladimír Tokar & Martin Jurek

  2. Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic

    Jan Geletič

  3. Department of Complex Systems, Institute of Computer Science of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jan Geletič

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  1. Michal Lehnert
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  2. Vladimír Tokar
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Correspondence to Martin Jurek.

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Lehnert, M., Tokar, V., Jurek, M. et al. Summer thermal comfort in Czech cities: measured effects of blue and green features in city centres. Int J Biometeorol 65, 1277–1289 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-020-02010-y

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