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WUDAPT: An Urban Weather, Climate, and Environmental Modeling Infrastructure for the Anthropocene

2018/03/26 by J. Ching, Gerald Mills, G. Mills +60 · 476 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Civil engineering #Climate change #Climate model #Computer science #Crowdsourcing #Data science #Dissemination #Environmental resource management #Environmental science #Geography #Land Use and Ecosystem Services #Remote Sensing and Land Use #Typology #Urban Heat Island Mitigation #Urban climate #Urban morphology #Urban planning #World Wide Web

paper · pdf · doi:10.1175/bams-d-16-0236.1

published in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 99(9), 1907-1924 (American Meteorological Society)

openalex publication_date 2018/03/26 · openalex created_date 2018/03/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Abstract The World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) is an international community-based initiative to acquire and disseminate climate relevant data on the physical geographies of cities for modeling and analysis purposes. The current lacuna of globally consistent information on cities is a major impediment to urban climate science toward informing and developing climate mitigation and adaptation strategies at urban scales. WUDAPT consists of a database and a portal system; its database is structured into a hierarchy representing different levels of detail, and the data are acquired using innovative protocols that utilize crowdsourcing approaches, Geowiki tools, freely accessible data, and building typology archetypes. The base level of information (L0) consists of local climate zone (LCZ) maps of cities; each LCZ category is associated with a range of values for model-relevant surface descriptors (roughness, impervious surface cover, roof area, building heights, etc.). Levels 1 (L1) and 2 (L2) will provide specific intra-urban values for other relevant descriptors at greater precision, such as data morphological forms, material composition data, and energy usage. This article describes the status of the WUDAPT project and demonstrates its potential value using observations and models. As a community-based project, other researchers are encouraged to participate to help create a global urban database of value to urban climate scientists.

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