Talk:Urban heat island

Tasks to do

1. For the BAU and the 2°C aim scenarios in the Mega CS in the years 2005 (base case, no policy measures), 2020, 2030 and 2050 to investigate the effects of better insulated houses on the air exchange rate and the concentrations of indoor air sources (accumulation of radon, VOC, mould).
   1. Some information on how many houses are insulated might be available from the energy model (model owner Markus Blesl, intermediate contact Alex)
   2. Air exchange rates and emissions from indoor sources are at the moment investigated by the exposure modelling group (LAMA). This applies only to the current situation. Assumptions for the future need to be made (again, some information to build on might be available from the energy model).
   3. The person responsible for this task also needs to make things coherent: to see to it that the assumptions used by other modelling groups (Amy for ETS; JRC for VOCs) are the same as those used within THL and for the exposure modelling group (LAMA).
   4. The person furthermore needs to make sure that from all those groups working with indoor sources (THL / LAMA, JRC, Amy) the results and assumptions are made available in an easily understandable format to USTUTT (Alex) to be later taken into account during the overall analysis of the Mega CS.
   5. The influence of single measures to the overall impact of the 2°C aim scenario (building codes: insulation and ventilation; air conditioning) should also be identified.
2. For the same scenarios to investigate the effects of increased wood (biomass) burning in houses on the indoor concentrations of PM2.5 and other relevant pollutants.
3. Urban planning: for the same scenarios: reduction of heat stress in cities.
   1. Question: if there is more shading in a city or more open water, how would this influence the temperature in a city and what would this mean for the health effects?
   2. Process:
      1. USTUTT will provide as much meteorological information as possible from the REMO data regarding temperature. Sandra is in the process of finding out what is available. Data are on the 50x50 km Emep grid. Data will be available for 2005, 2020, 2030, and 2050.
      2. THL will add some kind of a heat island increment for those grid cells where cities (> 100.000 inhabitants) are. THL will together with Maud identify how the metrics relevant for exposure will be derived from the available data. This will constitute the BAU scenarios.
      3. THL will, for the 2°C aim scenarios, model how much the temperature can be decreased due to more shading and open water.
      4. Maud will provide an xls-sheet into which the input data can be entered and the results will be health effects (including documentation). Maud for this will provide DRFs. USTUTT will provide the population data by 5 age year groups and gender for the Emep grid and probably also for the cities separately. THL will apply Maud’s xls-sheet to all input data and document the results and hand them over to USTUTT.
   3. Maud will send a further e-mail on this issue with more details. (See below):
      • Following Alex’s email, please find attached the notes from the WP4.3- telemeeting on heat stress. As agreed, ICIS will provide info on the DRF and health impact modeling.THL is responsible for the exposure side of this assessment en the actual modeling (linking population, mortality and exposure data with health impact models). First of all, it is important to discuss the exposure variable required for the health impact models: °C Daily maximum Apparent Temperature over threshold temperature, warm season (April-September). Who should I talk to within THL? For more instructions, see Talk:Health effects of urban heat islands#Instructions from Maud 11.5.2010.