Weather conditions in coastal mountainous urban environment are diverse, patchy, and shifting. A few weather stations struggle to characterize local winds, precipitations, and temperatures. It may cause disputable policy measures when air pollution mitigation in one place results in increasing pollution in another. Bergen – a mid-size city in such a challenging complex environment – is regularly experiencing local air quality and weather extremes.
To reconstruct spatial and temporal details of Bergen weather conditions, different observational datasets are needed. The TURBAN team from NERSC have collected observations from a broad variety of sources. Figure summarizes the data collection for Bergen. It shows locations of time series (meteorological and air quality) in the project domain (the central part of Bergen municipality). The dataset for Bergen is representative for urban air quality scenarios representing summertime (2019-07-20 to 2019-07-27) and wintertime (2021-02-04 to 2021-02-15) influential episodes. The dataset includes a selection of meteorological, air quality, and geospatial (urban features) data. The full dataset and its description are published with open access and available for download. Detailed paper describing the dataset is here.
On November 6, 2023, TURBAN project workshop was held in the Small Hall of Profesní dům, Malostranské náměstí on the topic "Air quality and thermal comfort in the capital city of Prague". The workshop was organized in a popular science form for both the employees of the Prague City Hall and the city districts of the capital city of Prague, both for professional and lay public.
At the workshop, there were presented not only the results of the TURBAN project, but also related issues beyond the scope of the project (e.g. mortality caused by increased heat stress). Thanks to the organization of the workshop, new areas of cooperation were identified and the requirements of local governments were clarified. Next workshop will be held in spring of 2024.
Jelena Radović, a Ph.D. student from the department of Atmospheric Physics at Charles University and a member of the TURBAN project, attended the Young Scientist School (YSS) URSA MAJOR 2023, which focused on Socio-Environmental Interactions in Sustainable Smart Cities.
The school was organized by professor Igor Ezau from the Arctic University of Norway (UiT) and took place in Tromsø (Sommarøy), Norway. The general idea of the school is to introduce a group of young researchers to the topic of urban, societal, environmental, and computational sciences. Through a series of lectures from leading experts, the attendees were able to learn the current cutting-edge challenges in urban system research, urban climate modeling, observations, and communication about socio-environmental interactions.
The students were divided into four groups, each of which focused on one specific topic to share knowledge and communication. Jelena was a part of the so-called Social Line group, which focused on social components of smart cities. The schools started on October 23rd with the kick-off meeting where the students and supervisors introduced each other and got the first tasks. The students had one week to prepare for the tasks given by the supervisors after which in-person sessions started in Tromsø (Sommarøy) on November 1st. During the in-person sessions, the students attended many lectures and worked on the specific tasks of their projects. The individual group’s projects were successfully defended on November 20th in the form of group presentations through an online meeting, where all school participants and supervisors were present.
You can read more detailed information in the attached study.
From the end of May 2022 to the end of March 2023, the low-cost air quality sensors (measuring NO2, O3, PM10 and PM2.5), a meteorological mast (MM for measuring temperature, relative humidity, wind direction and speed below the level of roofs), a portable aerosol Doppler LIDAR (LDR for measuring vertical profiles of wind direction and speed and aerosol layers) and a microwave radiometer (MWR for measuring vertical temperature stratification of the atmosphere) were placed within streets Legerova, Sokolská, Rumunská and their surroudings.
We would like to invite you to a workshop focused on air quality and thermal comfort in Prague. The workshop will be held on November 6, 2023 in the Small Hall of Profesní dům, Malostranská Square 2/25, 118 00, Prague 1. Detailed program of the workshop see here.
On 13th–15th September 2023, the fifth in-person project meeting took place in Prague. The meeting was held in premises of Institute of Computer Science of The Czech Academy of Science.
The main program of the meeting was preparation of finalization of the individual results and setting of the work plan for the final phase of the project. Moreover, dates for the achievement of the results and possibilities of their presentation were set. Within the framework of individual working groups and at the plenary session, the progress of the work so far, the results and their validation and control were discussed in detail. Tasks for the coming weeks were divided with the aim of completing project in accordance with the proposed plan. Due to approved expansion and extension of the project, the discussion also covered the coordination of work on newly planned results of the project.
As a part of project meeting, a consultation meeting was held with a representative of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic Mr. Michal Tesař, who was presented with the progress of the project and the results achieved, and his questions were answered. Subsequently, the TA ČR representative answered the specific questions of the researchers. The benefits of the project and the benefits of the support of Norwegian funds and TA ČR for the solution of the project were talked over.
On 3rd-8th September 2023 Bratislava (SK) hosted the EMS annual meeting, at which the preliminary results of TURBAN project were presented within the talk titled Supplementary measurement campaign focused on meteorology and air quality to support the validation of the PALM LES model in Prague.
Petra Bauerová presented the whole project, its goals and gave a closer look at the experience of data control and evaluation in case of additional network consisting of low-cost air quality sensors and remote sensing technology for monitoring of wind speed, wind direction, aerosol layers and atmospheric temperature in a vertical profile (LIDAR, microwave radiometer).
The 11th International Conference on Urban Climate (ICUC-11) recently concluded after five days of presentations highlighting the latest advancements in urban climate research. The conference took place in Sydney from August 28 to September 1 and featured talks on topics like large-eddy simulation modeling, remote sensing, and the effects of vegetation and street trees on urban environments.
The TURBAN team offered insights into using advanced simulation tools to study city climates. Pavel Krč showcased a novel technique for the inclusion of non-orthogonal surfaces in the PALM model. Michal Belda presented research leveraging the PALM model to support urban planning decisions in Prague. Meanwhile, Jan Geletič shared findings on the complex impacts of urban greenery density on conditions for pedestrians. In addition to oral presentations, ICUC-11 included numerous poster sessions allowing researchers to discuss their work more interactively. In one of the sessions, the team presented a targeted observation campaign for validating the PALM model model against sensor network data in Prague.
Before the actual placement of low-cost sensors at selected locations within Legerova, Sokolská, Rumunská streets and the surrounding area, these devices were subjected to an initial comparative measurement in outdoor conditions, in order to detect possible malfunctions and measurement deviations.
On March 28, 2023, an additional measurement campaign with low-cost air quality sensors in Legerova, Sokolská, Rumunská and surrounding streets was completed.
On 5-9th June 2023, the fourth in-person project meeting took place in Bergen. The meeting was held at the NANSEN Center in Bergen, the Norwegian project partner.
The meeting focused mainly on the preparation of the project for its final stage. The summarization of the current state of the results preparation and plans for their finalisation were discussed and specified. Also the possibility of extending the project was discussed and we decided to apply for a four month extension. The ways of the future collaboration after the end of this project were also discussed and both Czech and Norwegian partners expressed their intention to continue the successful collaboration started in this project. The next meeting will be held in Prague in September 2023.
The observation campaign of the project TURBAN and its newly achieved results were presented to stakeholders and public by Petra Bauerová on Consulting meeting of the investigators of selected research projects in area of adaptation of the capital Prague to climate change on May 31, 2023. Presentations and “video” from the meeting are available at Prague ENV Portal (in Czech).
Tempe (USA) hosted the 23rd International Congress of Biometeorology, at which two presentations of the project results were given. First, Jan Geletič presented an analysis of the influence of sky view factor on urban thermal comfort (Sky view factor and its effects on thermal comfort in realistic urban environment). Second, Michal Belda presented a study on the difference between simple and complex measures’ influence on urban thermal comfort (Simple and complex measures for improvement of urban thermal comfort: an LES modeling study).
Martin Bureš, member of the Czech research team of the TURBAN project, was invited for a scientific visit to Tromsø by professor Igor Ezau, a colleague from the Norway team in the project TURBAN. One week scientific and research stay was held on Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø city, Norway, in the department of Physics and Technology in collaboration with the group of Renewable Energy.
The main subject of the visit was the micro-scale meteorological model PALM, which is heavily used in the TURBAN project. The work concentrated mainly on:
Utilization of the another meso-scale models as a boundary condition for PALM model was further discussed. Discussions about cross comparison between Prague and Bergen simulation results and observations using Monin-Obuchov similarity theory were started here as well as further possibilities of the cooperation between Prague and Tromsø with Bergen.
On 14-16th February 2023, the third face-to-face project meeting took place in Prague. The meeting was hosted by the Institute of Computer Science of Czech Academy of Sciences, the project's main partner.
The meeting focused on work in smaller thematically specialized groups this time. The main goal was the recapitulation of the previous progress and the synchronization of the tasks with respect to the fulfillment of the mandatory project results. The project meeting served as a platform for exchange of the experiences gathered during the solving of the project up to now and to the updating and detailed specification of the work schedule for the following period. The meeting was successful and helped to better coordinate the project activities with the goal of fulfillment of all planned project goals. The next project meeting is planned in Bergen in June 2023.
Denver (USA) hosted the 2023 Annual Meeting of AMS, at which the TURBAN project preliminary results were presented. Jan Geletič presented a talk titled Complexity of Adaptation and Mitigation Measures in Urban Canyon – Microscale Modeling Approach showing the modeling results for selected adaptation and mitigation measures for Prague-Dejvice. Michal Belda presented a talk titled Trade-offs Between Improvement of Thermal Comfort and Air Quality in Urban Environment Indicated by LES Model PALM Simulations in Prague Case Study showing that the PALM model indicates some measures designed to improve thermal comfort may bring deterioration of air quality.
One of the main project goals in 2022 was putting the sensor observation network, microwave radiometer, and Doppler LIDAR into operation and securing their following operation. The other main tasks concentrated on the improvement, testing and validation of used models and supporting tools, and gathering and processing input data. To harmonise our research and experiments with the main users of the results, regular communication with the Municipalities of the involved cities and their districts was performed and a new web-GIS tool for user presentation of the obtained data was developed. One of the mandatory project outputs was completed in 2022 - Specialised public database “Processed set of observations for Bergen”.
The observation campaign of the project TURBAN and its results were presented to stakeholders and public by Petra Bauerová on Consulting meeting of the investigators of selected research projects in area of adaptation of the capital Prague to climatic change on December 15, 2022. More detailed information about the meeting can be found on the website of the Prague Adaptation Strategy, the presentation is available to download on Prague ENV Portal. Video record is available on Youtube (in Czech).
On 13-15th September 2022, the second face-to-face project meeting took place in Bergen. The meeting was held at the NANSEN Center in Bergen, the Norwegian project partner.
The first day started with the project and meeting organization questions but most of the day was reserved to the physical visit of the various observation places and of the main modelling area in Danmarks plass. Next days were dedicated for special workshops with various presentations and discussions about project progress, coordination of the works, and progress in the results preparation. In the course of the workshops, three presentations of the NANSEN Center employees took place presenting topics investigated in NANSEN related to the project TURBAN. The meeting was successful and helped to spin and better coordinate the project activities. The next project meeting is planned in Prague for January/February 2023.
An experimental Web-GIS storymap site was created on an open ARCGIS platform. The storymap presents geo-tagged information combined with popular-style narratives.
Installation of air quality sensors as part of the measurement campaign for the TURBAN project in the high traffic-load streets of Sokolská, Legerova and the surroundings.
At the turn of May and June 2022, with the assistance of a high-lift platform and authorized technical workers, additional low-cost sensors were installed to measure the spatial distribution of concentrations of aerosol partiles PM10 and PM2.5, and further the gases nitrogen dioxide NO2 and ozone O3 in high traffic-load areas of Legerova, Sokolská and Rumunská streets in Prague 2.
On 15-16th June 2022, the first face-to-face project meeting of all members, including colleagues from Norway, took place in Prague.
The meeting started at the project main beneficiary of the project, at the Institute of Computer Science of Czech Academy of Sciences. The first day was dedicated to workshop presentations of progress and outlook in the individual work-packages as well as other closely related topics that led to discussion across the project. On the second day, under the guidance of colleagues from Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, an inspection of the measuring sensors and other observation equipments was held in the Legerova, Sokolská and Rumunská streets in Prague 2. In the afternoon, all the members of the meeting met at the premises of one of the project partners, at the CHMI in Praha – Komořany. There, researchers divided into work groups and discussed in more depth the current work tasks and other questions and initiatives from the previous day. The face-to-face project meeting was very positively valued by all members, especially the intensive knowledge sharing and development of ideas across the project, which is not possible with online communication. Furthermore, the personal inspection of the measured locations and measuring devices by all team members combined with the expert description of the measurement principles and conditions by members of work-package Observation was very beneficial. This will greatly help to improve use and correct interpretations of the measured data in other work-packages of the project. The next personal meeting is planned in Bergen, Norway, in September 2022.
The accompanying measuring network also includes tools capable of measuring selected meteorological variables in a vertical profile above the city. These instruments include a passive microwave radiometer (for measuring the temperature profile), a Doppler aerosol lidar (for measuring wind profiles and aerosol layers) and a mobile telescopic meteorological mast designed for measuring temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric air pressure and wind speed and direction in the field.
As part of the TURBAN project, an accompanying measurement campaign is planned in selected parts of Prague, which will serve to verify and improve software tools for microscale modelling of meteorology and air quality in the city (i.e. modelling in space of units of meters).
The TURBAN project studies urban air quality and thermal comfort using street-scale turbulence-resolving models. The main focus of the project in 2021 was on building and calibration of a sensor observation network in Prague centre, preparation and improvement of the model and supporting tools, design of the model validation and sensitivity experiments, including domain selection and model configuration, and gathering and processing input data. To harmonise the design of our research and experiments with the main users of the results, the plans were consulted with the Municipalities of the involved cities and their districts. Despite of the limitations caused by Covid-19 pandemic, most of the planned activities were realized according to the plan.
The project was presented (in czech) at a consultation meeting of researchers of selected research projects in the field of adaptation of the capital city of Prague on the premises of the Prague Innovation Centre. The participants were informed about the project's scope and main objectives, the work to be carried out in the coming months and the range of scenarios envisaged.
In October 2021, the monitoring visit of the TURBAN project took place at the Institute of Informatics CAS. The visit was attended by TA CR consultants Dominika Paclíková and Zuzana Dostálová, the Principal Investigator of the project Jaroslav Resler and his team members, and representatives of the Czech partners. The current status of the project implementation, the schedule of the planned activities, and the distribution of these activities among the project partners were presented.
Afterwards, the detailed description of all particular activities in the project and the planned activities for next period was presented:
Following project activities focused on Data fusion and Comparison of LES and Gaussian models will be implemented according to the plan from the year 2022. The monitoring visit was carried out in good condition and was positively evaluated.
The TURBAN project (Turbulent-resolving urban modeling of air quality and thermal comfort) was designed within the first public invitation for a Program for the support of applied research, experimental development and innovation, KAPPA.
This program focuses on extending knowledge in applied research through international co-operation with partners from the Czech Republic and Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein. In the Czech Republic the project is administered by the Technology Agency Czech Republic. First public invitation took place between Jan 2019 and Feb 2020. The TURBAN project was accepted and realization officially began on Jan 1, 2021.
TURBAN is a 3-year project focused on the issue of turbulent atmospheric flow in urban regions and development of advanced tools for the assessment of thermal comfort and air quality in cities. Results of the project can then be used to devise measured to reduce thermal stress and air pollution in cities.
Main solver of the project is the Institute of Computer Science of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Norway is represented by Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre in Bergen. Co-solvers are organizations focused on meteorological modelling and air quality assessment – the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Department of Atmospheric Physics at the Charles University and ATEM - Studio of Ecological Models. Applied part, related to outputs for the purposes of city authorities and city planning, coordinated by the Prague City, Institute for planning and development in Prague, Bergen commune (Bergen city administration), Port of Bergen and urban documentation planners.